JUNE 19: COMPROMISEDBy Dustin AllmanPastor, The Fort Church, KingsportFocal Passage: 1 Kings 11:1-13    We will all worship something or someone. The question is who or what is the object of our worship?1 Kings 11 describes the drift of Solomon’s compromising heart. Solomon’s heart was given to other lovers and he fell hard. James 1:15 reminds us, “… after desire is conceived, it gives birth to si...  Read More

INDWELT BY THE SPIRITBy Scott BrownPastor, First Baptist Church, WaverlyFocal Passage: Romans 8:9-17 At the moment of conversion, when we are born again, the Holy Spirit takes up residence inside us. He indwells the believer and gives them power to live for Jesus. This comes with many benefits to us. It is a constant reminder we are not left alone to stumble through the adventure of the Christian ...  Read More

BORN AGAIN BY THE SPIRITBy Scott BrownPastor, First Baptist Church, WaverlyFocal Passage: John 3:1-8, 14-17Sunday School Lesson Bible Studies For LifeJohn chapter 3, need I say more? This is an amazing encounter as Jesus breaks down the beauty of the gospel and our desperate need of it to Nicodemus.To this man who had the right bloodline, the right credentials, and the right training He says, “You...  Read More

But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. —-James 1:6   There is a false teaching that says whatever you want, speak it into existence. You name it, and you claim it; God will do whatever you ask Him to do.Thank God that isn’t true. God will overrule our r...  Read More

ReconciliationFor if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son . . .—Romans 5:10The word “reconcile” means literally “bring into a changed relationship.” It means to bring together two parties who should have been together all along. The Bible speaks of the human race as enemies of God. You may say that you are no “enemy” of God, but according to Scripture we are eit...  Read More

Amos 7:1-9, 8:1-3Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, He was forming a locust-swarm when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king's mowing.  And it came about, when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said,  "Lord God, please pardon! How can Jacob stand,  For he is small?"  The Lord changed His mind about this.  "It shall not be," sa...  Read More

EXALTING EVIL?By Mike Fabarez One of the challenges of living a godly life in an ungodly world, is the pressure we face when the world perpetually exalts those who are evil, and expects the rest of us to applaud. As with Isaiah, we live in a culture filled with “those who call evil good and good evil” (Is.5:20). Jesus made it clear that “what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of ...  Read More

Repent By Mike FabarezLike a lot of preachers, Amos confessed he had no aspirations of being one. He told his critics that he was happy being a simple farmer, but that God had pressed him into service and commissioned him to call his generation to repentance (7:14-15). Being the unassuming man he was, he put his convicting sermons in the simplest of terms. He told the compromised “people of God” i...  Read More

Forgivenessby Mike Fabarez God’s forgiveness is complete. Because God is too pure to approve or tolerate what is evil (Hab.1:13; Ps.5:4-5; et al.), to say that we are God’s beloved children because we are accepted by God in Christ, is to make a gigantic claim that assumes that our sin problem has been totally resolved. It can only mean “total” forgiveness. To see yourself in the promise of Romans ...  Read More

Wait Patientlyby Mike Fabarez Sometimes the way we read the Bible becomes a disservice to our Christian life. When a tension is presented in the plot of a biblical narrative we naturally “can’t wait” to see how it will be resolved; so we rush on to see how God works it all out. And after we’ve become familiar with all the Bible stories, our rereads of the various human crises are often skimmed wit...  Read More

Life’s Detoursby Mike Fabarez We all experience life’s detours—those unexpected twists and turns which disappoint and frustrate us because they’ve disrupted our well-laid plans. When the next one comes our way, let’s be careful how we respond. If the disappointment turns into anger and bitterness, then we know we’ve clearly lost sight of one of the central tenets of biblical Christianity—namely, t...  Read More

2 Timothy 2:1515Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,3 a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. Whose praise are you living for?By nature, we desire the approval of others. But, as believers, the approval we should long for above all else is the approval of God Himself. It is worth pausing to consider the awesome truth that, today, what we do c...  Read More