Galatians 6:14-15 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation." The answer to the question in the title is "Yes!" While reading the end of Galatians, I was struck by the way in which God inspired Paul to write about his relationship to the world. They both had been crucified to

When I was first married, I used to work for a company that repaired medical equipment. My specific job was repairing the scopes connected to surgical cameras so the doctors could see inside the body during a minimally invasive surgery. I spent hours looking through a microscope and working with tiny pieces. Before any instrument was ready to be sent back out it had to go through "QC" or "Quality Control." You could say that it was "inspection time." That meant the scope

Various trials can challenge our faith in ways never challenged before. As I sit back and reflect, I can't imagine going through a time such as this without the Lord. If we are in Christ, we also believe that God has a purpose and plan for both the virus threat and His children. Can you imagine going through this situation without Him? We serve an uppercase "G" God, but sometimes we can view Him with a lowercase "g". In other words, is our view of God large or small? Do

"It is enough." What is enough? I love when something is enough. That means I don't have to keep trying so hard, or I don't have to keep filling it up. It means that no more is needed. So what does Jesus say is enough? Matthew 10:25 says "It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master." As followers of Christ, it should be enough for you and for me to be like Jesus. We shouldn't want or need anything else. Nothing else is neede

Psalm 99 says that the LORD reigns, He sits enthroned above the cherubim, He is elevated in Zion, He is exalted above the nations, He is holy (vs. 3, 5, 9), and the strong King who loves justice (vs.1-4). Let us reverence (v.1), praise Him (vs. 3, 5, 9), worship Him (vs. 5, 9), and obey (v. 7). God is still in control, as He was in the leadership of Moses, Aaron, and Samuel (vs. 6-7). Since He is the God who loves justice (v. 4), let us surrender rather than judge Him unjus

On St. Paul's 2nd missionary trip he crossed over into southeastern Europe (northern Greece). He spread the gospel and planted a church in a little known place. Since that day the gospel spread westward through Europe and the Americas. Jesus illustrated this by saying that the Kingdom is like a grain of mustard seed. It is small, but the tree that follows is huge. The importance of little things in God's hands and plans is seen in a pebble being thrown into the water. T

As we all have seen over the past few weeks, life as we know it has come to a screeching halt. Events have been canceled, schools are moving to online learning, social distancing is drastically changing interactions, and many people are working from home or have lost their jobs. It feels like we have, as a nation, been put in timeout and sent to our rooms (houses). The American culture is so focused and centered around time. We get up, go through a daily routine, rest, an

We need to be like Joseph--the earthly father of Jesus. No, I don't mean that we need to become carpenters--although some of us might have more time on our hands to attempt projects around the house. And no, I don't mean that we need to pack up our families and flee to a region in the south like Joseph took his family to Egypt. But I do see some helpful insights for today from Joseph's life found in Matthew chapter 1. When Joseph is first introduced outside the genealogy,

As Joshua was leading God's people into the promised land of Canaan, God commanded them 4 times (in Joshua 1:6, 7, 9 &18) to be strong and of a good courage. The battles would be fierce. The walled cities of the enemies of God were high. The giants in some areas were huge. The diseases were rampant, and new to the children of Israel. Let us remember a few blessings and truths from that same God who is still on the throne. 1. Courage is not the lack of fear. It is the f