Richard Ellis Talks

Close? Closer? Closest? How far would you say you are from God in your relationship with Him? Just like a fighter pilot has to "debrief" after each flight -- and course correct where needed -- we as Christians can also live out a life of "course corrections" by seeking God's direction, knowing He's faithful to debrief us on how to stay closest to Him.

The world advertises sex before marriage as a foregone conclusion, a natural progression of the dating process. But there are consequences to the world's way of doing things, and often, those consequences are significant. There's great reward in waiting on God to bring someone who's interested in doing things His way -- someone who's looking for supreme courting.

We can look to people who don't know Jesus and envy their seemingly careless, seemingly carefree lifestyle, while we struggle to live God's way and seem to face trial after trial. The "luxuries" of the world are enticing, but when we trust God in all things, He's faithful to answer our cries if we call to Him, and to give us strength to make it through our storm.

Maybe you grew up in a loving family, or maybe being part of one always felt like an impossible dream. Regardless of where we came from, we're offered that very opportunity through God the Father -- but it comes with responsibilities. God commands us as His children to love others as we love ourselves. As part of the family of God, we need our brothers and sisters to love us and be loved by us, too.

When you take "the high road", it's usually far less crowded. That's because it's not easy to admit fault and ask for forgiveness -- but when we offend someone else, that's exactly what we need to do. If we choose to follow Christ, God's grace abounds when we confess our sins to Him with a repentant heart. But if we continue to deliberately sin, we have to be prepared to face the lasting consequences of our choices.

God doesn't just use all of us to make a difference -- He uses each of us to make a difference. Individually, we make up different parts of the Body of Christ, and together, we make up the whole of His Church. And He wants His Church to be united in one accord -- each part working as they were designed and called -- in order to have Kingdom impact in this world.

The promise of God's love for us is greater than any love we could find on this earth. When we chase after Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we become rightly aligned in relationship with Him. And in some cases, not only do we experience the power of His finding love -- we also find relationship with another believer when they're rightly pursuing the Lord, too.

 

The Bible says that we're dead to sin -- yet we don't live that way. On the contrary, there are certain sins that ensnare and entangle us in the traps of the enemy. Instead of sinning as much as we want to because we know that God will forgive us, we need to acknowledge that there are consequences to our choices -- and that our best life is lived in obedience to Him.

There's an old Bedouin story about "the sin of the desert": knowing where water is, but refusing to tell anybody where to find it. The Gospel is spiritual water in a spiritual desert. As Christians, we not only have the road map to Jesus, the Living Water -- we may very well be part of the road map God will use to lead someone else to His oasis.

When we ask God to give us wisdom or clarity, what we're often really saying is that we want Him to give us a "yes" to our request. But sometimes, the answer is "no" -- and that's a good thing. When we fail to seek His direction, or when we seek it and then do our own thing anyway, we often find ourselves facing a world of hurt and trouble that could have otherwise been avoided.