“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10 NIV)   Study any psychological test and they’ll tell you the most insecure place for a kid to be is at the center of his or her family – controlling all the strings, getting their way in everything. Kids instinctively know they do not belong in the center of the family; it creates great insecurity in their lives. Where kids find stability and...

Your prayers are desperately needed for our nation and our world—and for everything you’re believing for in your own life!Today, the first Thursday in May 2011, is the National Day of Prayer for the United States of America.Our country needs all its Christian citizens to join in this call to prayer. And God’s Word promises that we will receive answers as we agree together!

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10 NIV)   Study any psychological test and they’ll tell you the most insecure place for a kid to be is at the center of his or her family – controlling all the strings, getting their way in everything. Kids instinctively know they do not belong in the center of the family; it creates great insecurity in their lives. Where kids find stability and...

I’m a mess. I’m nothing and have nothing: make something of me! You can do it; you’ve got what it takes God. Psalm 40:17 (Msg)   Jesus warned us that we’d have . No one is immune to pain or insulated from suffering, and no one gets to skate through life problem-free. Life is a series of problems. Every time you solve one, another one is waiting to take its place. Peter assures us that problems are normal, saying...

The angel spoke to the women: “There is nothing to fear here. I know you’re looking for Jesus, the One they nailed to the cross. He is not here. He was raised, just as he said …. Matthew 28:5-6 (MSG)   [Jesus said,] “I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20 (MSG) As we’ve been learning this week, Easter is a celebration of Jesus conquering even death in...

So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first. “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” – Matthew 27:64-65 (NIV) People may think that there is a lot of antagonism to the Christian faith today, but the...

Taking bread, he blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “ Eat it in my memory.” He did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant written in my blood, blood poured out for you.” Luke 22:19-20 (Msg)   The third cup in the Passover meal is the cup of redemption. Redemption means to buy somebody’s freedom. Jesus bought your freedom with his life on the cross. At the Last Supper,...

“I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.” Exodus 12:12-13 (NIV) There is a second cup in the Passover meal called the cup of plagues. And it is a reminder from God that he will free us from slavery to our fears. Do you remember the story of how the people of Israel were set free? Moses is...

“I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.” Exodus 6:6-7a (NIV)   Passover is all about how God sets his people free and, in the Passover meal, we see the four promises that God makes to set his people free. Easter...

“Father, Forgive Them” The dialogue that Friday morning was bitter. From the onlookers, “Come down from the cross if you are the Son of God!” From the religious leaders, “He saved others but he can’t save himself.” From the soldiers, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” Bitter words. Acidic with sarcasm. Hateful. Irreverent. Wasn’t it enough that he was being crucified? Wasn’t it enough that he...

So then, we must pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another. Romans 14:19 (HCSB) • God wants us to build one another up — The word support literally means to increase one another’s potential. It carries the idea of strengthening one another, to make one another more able to face the challenges of living for Christ. “We are in this fight together” (Philippians 1:30 NLT). We cannot afford to lose anyone. To...

So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! Romans 15:7 (MSG)   God wants you to accept others in the same way that Jesus accepted you. In faith, we accepted God’s acceptance of us – through Christ – when we were unacceptable, and so we love God by freely offering the same gift – His acceptance – to others. To love God and to be to others what He is to us … We must be willing to...

Among the last words Jesus gave His followers are those known as “The Great Commission.” He instructed His followers to, “Go into all the world and make disciples of the nations…teaching them to observe all things whatsoever He had commanded them.” It is obvious believers have failed to fulfill the Great Commission because of a Great Omission. We have gone forth preaching and proclaiming the Gospel, but not necessarily...

I can remember a number of years ago when somebody told me there was going to be an information superhighway and how revolutionary it was going to be. I thought to myself, That sounds like a crazy and unrealistic possibility. How wrong I was. I admit that I am not technologically up to speed. I have, however, learned to use an iPad—barely. I can look at my calendar, and retrieve phone numbers and addresses from my list of contacts....

I do not condemn you either. Go, but do not sin again. John 8:11 (TEV)   Grace is meant to justify the sinner – ‘Go and sin no more.’ Grace is never meant to justify our sins – ‘Everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are.’ In other words, the grace of God is not a cosmic ‘get out of jail free’ card. Grace is given freely, but it cost Jesus a bloody price to offer it to us: “Once you were far away from God, but...

“When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’ … All the people saw this and began to mutter, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a “sinner.”’” Luke 19:5-7 (NIV)   Have you noticed that it was Jesus’ dinners with sinners that always got him into trouble? He was always getting into hot water with the religious people because he was always...

“Jesus looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name, ‘Zacchaeus!’ he said.” Luke 19:5b (LB)   All of Zacchaeus’ life he’d been ridiculed and rejected, first for his appearance and then for his sinful life. But Jesus not only looked at him — by calling Zacchaeus by name — Jesus showed that he knew him. Imagine the shock Zacchaeus must have felt! How did he know his name? God not only knows where you are, he...

Luke 19:37-40 – Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your...

I get asked all the time if Elevation is all about the numbers. Let me just clarify something: Our church is all about the numbers. The number of lives that Jesus can permeate and penetrate with the gospel. The number of marriages that can be restored. The number of teenagers following the Lord. The number of depressed people that can find hope in Jesus. The number of dads who don’t give their kids any attention who will learn to order...

Then the LORD ordered him, “Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself am sending you.” Judges 6:14 (TEV) Think about this the next time you insist on perfect conditions before you’ll get started on God’s plan – Gideon, a mighty warrior and judge in the Old Testament, was the least member of the weakest clan in the tribe of Manasseh. His job was the tedious threshing of wheat, a process where...