As a Christian, one of the most important things you can do is find yourself a good church. Church is essential for community, growth, and service. A livestream or pre-recorded version of a church service is good if you're sick or out of town, but it can never replace the real thing. However, in all honesty finding a good church can be a little tricky. More often than not people become discouraged and give up on church altogether because they just cannot seem to find a church to truly call home. If that is you, I hope that I can be of assistance. I have 3 tips in finding a church that you can call home for the long haul.

Now I submit to you that is Christians, we should value God‘s word enough to handle it properly. The Bible has all we need in this life to know Him, follow Him, and love others. A result of not handling His word correctly can have detrimental results on our lives. So now let us examine James 1:21-27. 

The wives of Elkanah had one major difference: Penninah had children, and Hannah did not. In these days,and in this part of the world, a woman's greatest accomplishment in life was having children. That is not to say that today is much different, but women tend to find other identities than solely embracing the fact that they are a mother. They took being a mother much more seriously in these times. Motherhood is a very special thing, however, in the Old Testament times, it was even more desired than today.

Quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” So simple and straightforward, yet so difficult for us to master. This is such a hard battle for us that God gives us in His word many similar teachings. Some of these many passages can be found in Proverbs 10:19, 11:12, 14:29, 15:1, and 17:28. One day when we are all gathered to Christ these teachings will be in our very nature, but right now we need to work at it. The ways that we walk and talk are very important to God. We have 3 things we can be working on taken from verse 19.

Should anyone read The Message Bible? Let’s start by understanding what The Message Bible even is. First off, to the best of my knowledge, It was never intended to or implied by anyone to replace your main Bible. I think we should view it in the proper light, that being The Message Bible is a very useful tool. We often take a peek at a few commentaries when we are reading or studying certain passages in our Bibles. We might even look up an article or a sermon by a Pastor or brother in Christ we admire, and see their thoughts on a particular passage. Additionally, we have the opportunity to look it up in The Message Bible. 

I grew up with friends that were much older than me. For instance, when I was 8, the friends on my street were 13 or so. That's a pretty big difference. It’s no wonder that I was advancing through my youthful days faster than other kids. Part of this rapid growth was also the sudden realization that Santa Claus is not real. 

Hopeless. Good for nothing. Uninspiring. Wasteful. These are thoughts that intrude my mind from time to time, when I don’t feel like anything I am doing is accomplishing anything of significant value. My goal in life is to know God as deeply as I possibly can, to instill that same love and desire for God in my wife and children, and help others in the world know Jesus. As nice as I think these goals are, there are very few moments in my day, week, month, or even year, that I feel like I am even slightly working towards these goals. The irony is that I spend so much time spinning my wheels trying to find the next big thing to accomplish that has tangible and evident results, that I often miss the small wins that are right in front of my eyes.

God has rules in place for us for a reason. Depending on the rule, it might be for our benefit, or His, or both. Regardless of the reason why, as God’s children we should be doing our best to obey His rules. Our goal should never be to just obey enough to not be in sin, because we're really missing the point if that's why we obey.

The Bible teaches us here that the rich man and the poor man both have the same end. Most people think that what matters is acquiring as much as you can in a person's lifetime. However, this is false. All of those things people seek to acquire will all one day perish as well. True happiness and wealth cannot come from one’s physical possessions.

Una vida llena de dudas no es una vida contenta. Pero, somos las personas de Dios y tenemos muchas promesas en Cristo. Por eso, no necesitamos dudar. Pero, a veces, incluso los niños de Dios, tienen dudas. Es normal pero la buena noticia es que cuando empezamos a crecer en la fe estos momentos en dudas existen menos frecuentemente. Dios nos quiere fortalecer y construirnos, pero nuestras propias dudas puede entorpecer nuestro crecimiento. Dios quiere bendecirnos y responder a nuestras oraciones, pero necesitamos orar sin dudas.

There is a false idea out there today, so prevalent, that I am almost certain you have heard more times than you could possibly count. Here is the statement, something along these lines:

“Hey Christian! If you do X,Y, or Z….Or, you don’t do X,Y or Z…then you are going to stand before God on judgment day and you are not going to make it to heaven”

This is false. Plain and simple. It’s inaccurate, misleading, and damaging for multiple different reasons. Allow me to very briefly explain why these kinds of statements are absolutely, positively, false doctrine.

A life full of doubt is not a very happy life. We are the people of God and have many amazing promises in Christ, so we really have no reason to doubt. And yet we do. Some of us toil in anxious fits when in reality, we have no reason to. But rest assured, because this is common. Sometimes we just find ourselves in moments of doubt.

But there is good news! Generally speaking, as we begin to grow in the faith, and our walk with God, these moments of doubt and worry will happen less and less. God wants to strengthen and build us, but our doubts can often get in the way of this. God wants to bless us and answer our prayers but we need to keep our doubts in check.

It has been said time and time again “It’s not about what you know, it’s about WHO you know”. People spend their entire lives trying to network and fit in and establish contacts with higher positions in society than themselves, all in the hopes of success. For many, life is about rubbing shoulders with people of power. (celebrities, politicians, etc.) Many people want to make friends with people who will propel them along in life. Proverbs 19:6 tells us “Many seek the favor of a generous man, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts.” Everyone wants to be friends with someone that they can gain something from.

Despues que Jesus murio en la cruz, resucito, y ascendió al Padre, los creyentes en todas las partes del mundo que todavia estan aqui, y estan dispersos. Ahora esperamos por Jesus regresar, pero mientras tanto, ¿debemos que pasamos nuestras vidas? Hay muchos libros que existen acerca de sobreviva, peron son para las personas sobrevivir las catástrofes naturales, perderse en el desierto, incluso un accopalcypse zombie. Pues, ¿hay un libro para los ninos de Dios para sobrevivir en un hogar que no es nuestros? para los ninos que estan esperan por Jesus a volver? Toda de la Biblia, claro, pero mas especifico, el libro de Santiago.Este libro es un guía de supervivencia para los creyentes. Si vamos a sobrevivir en este mundo hasta que Dios nos reúna, necesitamos:

La Paciencia

After Jesus died on the cross, rose again, and ascended to the Father, believers in all parts of the world are now scattered. Now we are waiting for the return of Christ, but while we are waiting, what should we be doing with our lives? Many books exist already about survival, but they are written for people to survive natural disasters, being lost in the wilderness, or even a zombie apocalypse. But is there a book written for the children of God to survive in a home that is not ours? For those of us who are waiting for Jesus to return the Bible? Yes. Of course, we have the Bible, which is a lamp unto our feet as Christians, but even more specifically, I want to bring to your attention the book of James. The book of James is a survival guide for Christians. We may feel like the world is against us sometimes because it is. That means we need to use the wisdom from God’s word to survive. If we are going to survive in this world until God gathers us home we need to pay close attention to the lessons that the book of James teaches us.

One of the most enjoyable parts about reading books and stories is character development. We have all seen it, and expect it. Little Tommy is afraid of the thing, and then throughout the story has to face the thing, until the thing no longer is a big deal, and he learns a lot about himself by the end of the story. Jonah, as usual, continues to be the opposite of everything he should be.

“Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown”. This was the message of Jonah when he finally delivered the message God gave him. Maybe the message included more, maybe not, the Bible does not tell us. However, given Jonah’s typical attitude and lack of care for the people of Nineveh, I think it’s very likely those few words were the entirety of his message.

Here in Matthew 3 we have the religious leaders showing up to interrogate John the Baptist. Here in the passage, we see he is teaching and baptizing people, telling them to repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He was preparing people for Christ’s ministry. People were getting saved and were committing themselves to walk in newness of life. John was preaching what Roman’s 6:1-14 reaffirms.

I believe that the Christian Church, at least here in the United States, has numerous problems it needs to address in order to be healthy and reproduce. Today I will be sharing just one of the reasons I believe that the Church is not what it should be.

I think the Church could do a much better job with inclusivity. Now when I say that I am sure many people will already jump to conclusions, but I can assure you that nobody else sees this the way I do. What you think I am talking about is probably not what I am actually trying to talk about. I always seem to come at things from a different angle that does not appear to be the norm. Honestly, though, nobody is talking about this. So let’s start by defining what the word inclusivity even means.