Rick

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Can I Have a Witness?

Apparently not. Or at least not nearly so often according to a recent study released on May 15th, 2018 by the faith-based research group Barna where they compared current findings with those gathered twenty-five years ago. They found that sharing faith is increasingly optional to Christians, which directly opposes the Great Commission given to believers […]

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Worship Wins the War

Before Jehoshaphat battled the “great multitude” of Moabites, Ammonites, and some of the Meunites in the wilderness of Tekoa, the first thing he did was fast and pray. I urge you to meditate on his prayer in 2 Chronicles 20:6-12. As the text continues, we are reminded the battle is not ours, but the Lord’s.

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Why Not Love the World?

Loving neither the world or the things of the world is not a suggestion or merely good advice. It is a command. But why? We read further, For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions – is not from the

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Unconditional?

We Christians often talk about God’s unconditional love. However, using a word search tool in the ESV, KJV, NKJV, NASB, and NRSV translations reveals “unconditional” never appears once in scripture. “Love”, in contrast, appears 773 times in its various forms in the ESV. So does God love us unconditionally? Yes – and No. God absolutely

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The Greatest Loving-Kindness

February turns the thoughts of many to Valentine’s Day, with See’s chocolates, Sweethearts candies, and Hallmark cards dripping with prose professing true and enduring love. But there is only One who truly loves us forever and will never leave nor forsake us. No one can love us like our heavenly Father. And we should love

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Ready, Set, NEW!!!

Have you considered we serve the God of the new? Every week starts with a fresh Sunday. Every month is marked by a new moon. New spring growth follows a seasonal cycle of summer, autumn, and winter. At the end of each year, a new year begins. When we receive Christ we are made into

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The Greatest Christmas Gift

Probably the first verse memorized by every Christian is For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son… –John 3:16. God gave a gift beyond all gifts, a gift we could never earn or repay: life, forgiveness, joy, peace, and hope. At Christmas we celebrate the birth of this gift from

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What it Means to be Salt & Light

Jesus used salt and light several times as metaphors referring to His followers. Salt was used for two things in the 1st Century Middle East. First, salt preserved food, especially quick-spoiling meat. Similarly, believers preserve the lives of those in the world from inherent evil working within a society of unredeemed, ungodly men whose natures

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Show me Your Way

Just as the ways of God are far above the ways of man, so are His paths vastly superior. Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 remind us the ways that seem right to mankind lead only to death. This was evidently an important enough concept that the author was inspired to include it not once but twice.

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Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

When we read the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:5-13, the only seemingly material request we are instructed to pray is for is God to give us our daily bread. But should this be taken as literal bread to eat?   10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

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