Articles

Ministry is possibly the most important job a person could ever have. If you scroll through the latest reels on your favorite social media platform, you’ll likely come across videos of people in their worship buildings listening to a minister saying something seemingly profound but something that clearly misses the mark. Recently, I came across a video where the man ‘preaching’ said that people wh...

Fellowship is the condition of being together or sharing similar interests as do members of a profession, religion, or nationality; companionship. 1. Our fellowship must be with God and Christ (1 John 1:3). As children of God, we have fellowship with those in His family, including the Father and His only begotten Son. 2. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship w...

Above is the wisdom of Solomon regarding generosity. He says our bread will return to us after many days (Ecclesiastes 11:1). In fact, a dandy bit of “bread” returned to us just this week. We received a very nice card and a generous contribution from a congregation of the Lord’s people in Owatonna, Minnesota. In that card, several members expressed the following sentiments….. “Thank you for your w...

There are at least 46 verses in the bible that contain the word “zeal.” The definition of zeal is, a strong feeling of interest and enthusiasm that makes someone very eager or determined to do something. This word is often used to describe people in the church as well as local churches themselves. One would think that a word like zeal would always be a good thing for the Christian, but that isn’t ...

Jesus said many wonderful and glorious things. He is God in the flesh, after all. To me, there is one statement Jesus makes, that has encouraged me over and over again. A statement many of us know and quote with the idea in mind that Jesus truly is the son of God. However, there is so much more to this statement than its use of proof. This statement is a guide for us in our faith for Jesus says in...

Guest Speaker: Barry Day This morning our guest speaker will be Barry Day. He will be preaching on “Being an Influencer for Christ”. He will also be wrapping up our Wednesday night Summer Series: Bridge Builders with the subject of “Repairing Broken Bridges”. After 40 years of preaching, teaching, and ministry with his wife, Karen, Barry recently stepped down from being the preaching min...

Have you ever faulted yourself for taking something for granted? You might presume, even subconsciously, that your ability to see is a given. You accept the gift of sight without considering the cause behind it. We are taught that such blessings are from God as James wrote: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no va...

Have you ever felt like you are ‘lesser than?’ Many, if not all of us have. I’ve noticed that people tie significance to recognition. If they are recognized for their efforts, they feel significant. If their efforts go unnoticed, their view of themselves wanes. People measure their self-worth based on how others view them, which isn’t bad if the outside influence is God. Think of Seth in Genesis 4...

"If you want to experience the life of Jesus, you must adopt the lifestyle of Jesus.” I came across this line in my reading this week and in true preacher fashion I let out an audible, “wow.” It’s obvious, yet I’m not sure I’ve ever thought of it that way. We look at the life of Jesus, see a man who is full of peace, love, mercy, and assurance, and we want that. We see His life bearing fruit in nu...

One of the things about ministry that gives me great joy is showing the love of God and His son, Jesus, to those lost in the world. I remember helping a gentleman who was homeless and not a Christian, and he told me something that stuck with me as we parted ways, “It was nice to be treated like a human being.” In the Wednesday teen class, we have been learning a simple yet powerful statement. “If ...

Remember these lines? “Think about it, there must be a higher love Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above Without it, life is wasted time, Look inside your heart, and I'll look inside mine Things look so bad everywhere, In this whole world, what is fair? We walk the line and try to see, Fallin' behind in what could be” “Worlds are turnin', and we're just hanging on Facing our fear, and sta...

The movie is a true story about human trafficking. It especially addresses the kidnapping of children as objects for sale to assuage the lusts of godless people. It is said that there are more people enslaved today than ever before in human history, and this move shines a great light on this evil. If no one spent a dime on human trafficking, if markets for children as commodities lacked paying cus...

As the associate minister, I am responsible for the adult education here at Choctaw. It’s a role that I believe is crucial for the health and growth of a congregation and I take it very seriously. I want to provide all of you with classes that help you grow more into the image of Jesus. The goal of teaching is not to simply inform you, but transform you! If teaching doesn’t help you change, it isn...

On July fourth, 1776, the Continental Congress of the thirteen American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. A new nation was born taking upon itself the responsibility for self-government. But the founding fathers, and indeed other national leaders who followed them, understood that without the dependence of individual citizens on Almighty God, our form of government would be ...

From 1995-2005, the Barna Group tracked the views of American on moral relativism. Fewer than 32% of Christian adults believed in a universal truth and only 9% of Christian teens said they believed a universal truth even existed. Unfortunately, this statistic hasn’t changed much since then, even among ‘born-again’ adults. In 2014, Pew Research Center did a study finding that 29% of Americans belie...

The tree pictured is a desert willow, planted many years ago in one of the islands in our parking lot here at the church building. I am amazed it is still in such good shape. More than one ice storm has ravaged its limbs and broken off an uppermost portion of the trunk. I suspect it was some of our little ones who’ve broken off many of the lower limbs from time to time. A large hole was bored into...

I’m going on vacation, to relieve my tired mind, I can’t wait to start forgetting, all the stuff I’ll leave behind. My job with all its stress will be the first thing that will go, and maybe then those constant bills that to my mailbox flow. I’ll forget about those people who always bring me strife, their caustic negativity is just a blight on life. I’ll turn off tv, twitter & surely facebook too,...

This is not a confession, but a statement of fact. I know it is a fact because one of Jesus’ apostles spelled it out for me in a letter to the church at Rome: “In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should …..”, letter to the Romans, 8:26 A couple of things I believe worth noticing about this are: 1) Apostle Paul, the author, includes himself. He ...

“What do you have that you did not receive?” Jesus’ apostle asked this of the church at Corinth (1st Corinthians 4:7). Why? The context makes it apparent that some there were presumptuously judging the apostle and arrogantly boasting about it. Do you see the point of the question for them? Do we see the point of the question for us? Like the Corinthians, everything we enjoy today, has come to us a...

The title says it all, doesn’t it? All the fuss and handwringing over the Artificial Intelligence (AI) phenomena is quite anxiety producing for unbelievers. They have nowhere to go. The machines they depend on (computers, software, information-times-a-trillion) now threaten to eat them alive. Frankenstein’s revenge is here with a single key stroke! Not so with God’s children, who fear God, not mac...