Category: Thoughts and Meditations

“Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” – Genesis 5:24

What was quite rare in ancient times is widely available to every blood-bought believer in Jesus Christ… YOU can walk with God habitually. Enoch was unique because of the depth of his relationship with God at a time of widespread ungodliness. However, if Jesus is your Lord, then the Spirit of God lives in you and you’re invited to walk in step with Him (Galatians 5). Are you?

Is your walk with the Lord your top priority? Do you intentionally stop what you’re doing at times to pray and talk to God? Do you soak in His Word, reading, studying, and meditating on Scripture? Do you work hard to imitate Jesus, thinking like Him, speaking like Him, and acting like Him? Do you battle the temptations of your flesh that draw you away from God? Do you seek to put those temptations to death, fleeing from those which are too strong for you in the moment?

If so, then you’re truly walking with God. While you probably won’t be directly taken up to heaven like Enoch, you can certainly enjoy that same sweet fellowship with the Lord every day of your life. #FollowJesus

“But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.” – Malachi 4:2

What a perfect word from the final book of the Old Testament as we stand on the brink of a brand new year! Are you ready to leap eagerly into 2026, like an energetic calf getting free from its pen? Are you ready to walk into the power of the Holy Spirit Who lives in you if Jesus is your Lord? Are you ready for a year of letting your soul be healed by God’s grace as the Lord warms your heart with the sun of righteousness?

As you reflect on the highs and lows of 2025, be sure to give thanks to God for His presence in your life, in and through those very same highs and lows, triumphs and tragedies. As you pray and dream about the year ahead, may this promise be true for you! Fear the name of the Lord! Then leap into 2026 as you #FollowJesus

“But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” – Revelation 21:27

The Holy City… New Jerusalem… the restoration of creation as God made it to be…. It WILL be glorious. It IS the future. But ONLY for those whose names appear in the Lamb’s book of life! How does anyone get their name in that book? There’s only one way: as a gift of God’s grace given through genuine, saving faith in Jesus Christ. The kind of faith that Jesus is the crucified and resurrected Lord of the Universe that alters one’s life forever. That recognizes that whoever or whatever you were like before you met Jesus, He’s always calling you to change. To get rid of your old ways and walk in the newness of a life in imitation of Him.

It doesn’t matter if someone calls themself a Christian. It doesn’t matter if they’ve raised a hand, walked an aisle, or been baptized. What matters is if they’ve entrusted their life to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. Have you? Have you accepted God’s gift of grace and been made new creation? If so, you won’t persist in old habits that are detestable to God and false. God’s Spirit will nag at you until you repent and change your ways. He won’t give you peace until you crucify the old ways of your old self and begin to live your new reality as a child of God.

The same is true for those you care about. Are you desperate to see their names written into the Lamb’s book of life? Are you deeply concerned when you see them continue in false and detestable paths if they call themselves a Christian? You should be! As one year ends and another begins, who do you love enough to invite them into a transforming relationship with Jesus Christ? #FollowJesus

“You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ By saying, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.’ Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?’” – Malachi 2:17

Try not to weary the Lord with your words! That’s just good, solid life advice… Fortunately, the Bible gives us some examples of words that weary and frustrate the Lord when spoken by His people. One that’s popular today is saying that God is fine with sin and delighted with people engaged in unrepentant sin. That’s a total lie (proclaimed by many, including churches)! He isn’t!

God certainly is love. However, that doesn’t mean He has no opinion about, or turns a blind eye toward, sinful behavior. God is also perfectly holy and righteous! All sin must be dealt with and can’t be ignored. That’s true whether you’re talking about sexual sin, false teaching, or injustice, cruelty, and hard-heartedness toward the poor and vulnerable around you. That’s true whether the sin is greed, sinful anger, gossip, lying, substance abuse, or pride. Don’t try to pretend, excuse, explain, or affirm sin and call it good. Don’t lie and claim that God delights in people who make a habit of practicing sin. Those who are happily engaging in sin – whatever that sin is – are not in a good place with the Lord! To say otherwise is to lie about God’s nature.

Likewise, God grows tired of complaints about how the universe is being managed, when those complaints become our excuse to not obey Him. The Bible tells us to expect all sorts of calamity during our earthly lives. We live in a world that is thoroughly infected and affected by human sin at every level. Injustice is going to happen – for a period of time. Eventually, Jesus will return and all injustice will be dealt with. Those who are wicked will be dealt with for all eternity and God’s perfect justice will be done THEN and forever afterward (not necessarily now). Complaining about that which God has already explained in His word grows wearisome to Him when it becomes our reason not to delight in God and commit ourselves to #FollowJesus