Walk Through the Storm.

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“And Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.” —Matthew 14:28-29 How do we walk on the water with Jesus? How do we walk through the storm? Storms will come in life. Now by storm I don’t mean a physical storm, but the difficulty and danger and disasters that may come our way. You’re having a good day, the sun is shining, and then the phone rings, and you’re in the middle of a storm. Or you find yourself facing a collapse in your career. You get a pink slip, a dismissal. Or your child gets a bad doctor’s report. The fact is no one is immune. Christianity is not immunity from problems and trials and struggles and storms in our lives. Storms are inevitable. The good news is that what comes to pass doesn’t come to stay. We are able to learn how to have an unshakable, unsinkable faith in times like these. When God is perfecting us, He actually allows the storms or sends the storm into our lives. Jesus knows when the storms hit us, and He uses these storms in our lives…turbulent times in our lives to maybe turn our lives upside down so that we can grow closer to Him. He uses these winds that blow against us in our lives as a way to drive us closer to Him. He has authority over all the storms that assail us!

Thursday, September 20, 2018

A Question of Values

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:16–18

When David Livingstone went to Africa, he left behind most of the comforts he could have enjoyed. A medical doctor’s salary would have provided him a lovely home, and many luxuries and comforts. Instead, he spent most of his adult life in harsh and primitive conditions. After some time passed, he constructed a house with a lovely garden at the mission station in Mabotsa. But when Livingstone heard that some other missionaries were criticizing the expense, he gave the house away and moved further into the jungle to ensure that the work was not hindered. Later Livingstone wrote, “I do like a garden, but Paradise will make amends for all our privations here.”

The devil tries to get us to focus on the things of this world. He encourages us to strive to accumulate possessions, and he tempts us to judge our value by what we have and do not have. God, instead, provides things that are lasting and eternal—that do not lose value or fade away. When we value what matters to Him, we will not hold tightly to our earthly possessions. While we should be grateful for every material blessing we receive, we must never forget that this world is not our home. “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:17). Our hearts must be fixed on the things that truly matter.

Today’s Growth Principle: 

Nothing that exists in this world can compare to what is waiting for those who have trusted Christ.