WIth gentleness and respect
I Peter 3:15-16 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.We are commanded to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to the world. Most followers of Christ can quote the Great Commission word-for-word. It does not seem, however, that all Christians know how we are to carry out that command. We are to interact with gentleness and respe

God is with you
Philippians 2:13 for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.If you are a believer, God is at work in you. You may be in a situation right now where you feel like God has abandoned you altogether. You don't feel like He even hears you, let alone feel like He's working in you. But the truth is, if you are one of His, you are being used by Him in some capacity.When you become an adopted child of God the Father by accepting Jesus Christ the Son, you receive the Holy Spirit. This makes you an instrument of God. Please notice that Paul's letter to Philippi does not say that God is

The sin of omission
James 4:17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.Living out lives as disciples of Christ requires a lot of us. We try so hard not to commit sin in the eyes of the Lord and men, but the truth is we often sin by omission. We do the wrong thing by not doing the right thing.We pass up many opportunities to show Christ to others and thus do not bring glory to God in that situation. We don't show love, we don't bother ourselves with those in need, we don't get involved. We are all busy with our own lives and no one can blame us for that. Life gets busy. But when we find ourselves int

The paradox of the cross
From the blog of Pastor Greg Laurie: Jesus said that if we are to truly be His disciple we are to "take up our cross daily and follow Him" (Luke 9:23). But what does that mean?To understand that, we need to understand the meaning of the cross in that time and culture.The cross has lost most of its original meaning today. It is shrouded in religiousness and mystery. It has become many things, from a religious icon to fashion element.When we see the cross today, it is a symbol of faith, particularly the Christian faith.But in the time when Jesus made that statement, He had not yet died on

Relationships - Part III
Luke 6:31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.In the business of relationships, there are few more important lessons to be applied than this one principle. We often think of it in terms of how we should treat our friends, but in fact we should apply it to how we treat our enemies and strangers as well. In some cases, this type of behavior actually wins over enemies and turn them into friends.Treating others as we would have them treat us does not