Richard Ellis Talks

If you don't believe the world today is ruled by division, just try asking a group of your friends whether pineapple belongs on pizza! Instead of taking the time to hear the other side of an argument, we as a culture jump straight to dismissing someone else's opinion when it differs from ours, rather than inviting a conversation led by grace. We're called to speak truth in love, to be in the world but not of the world, and to model Christ's love in a way that will draw people closer to Him.

No matter how closely we walk with the Lord, there will undoubtedly be situations in this life where we find ourselves stumped by difficult circumstances. In those moments, we can choose to run from God in the midst of our suffering, or we can seek Him, knowing He can handle our doubt. We may not get the answers we're looking for on this side of Heaven, but when we enter eternity with Christ, He'll make all things known to us.

Many of us strive to look good on the outside -- and there's nothing wrong with taking good care of the body God gave us! If we're not careful, though, we can spend so much time focusing on our outward appearance that we wind up completely empty on the inside without Christ. God made us in His own image, and far more important than our attractiveness is His work, both in us and through us.

There's a big difference between living a moral life and living a godly life. Choosing to not give into sin because of moral pride will only set us up for failure, because we can never resist temptation completely on our own. But recognizing the obedient lifestyle God's designed for us -- and intentionally walking in that lifestyle -- allows us to face temptation from the solid ground of a foundation built on Scripture.

Psalm 27:1 reads, "The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life — of whom shall I be afraid?" The only reason we should fear anything is if we don't have God living in us and fighting for us. But when we have the Lord on our side, He's stronger than anything the devil can throw at us!

Prayer isn't only meant for "use in case of emergency" situations -- but too often, we wait until we find ourselves in a spot of trouble and having already tried to fix the situation through our own means before we ask God for help. He's given us the Holy Spirit to get us "out of the woods", and He wants us to help other people find their way out, too.

There's a very real spiritual world that exists beyond the world we can see, and its forces are continually at war even as you and I go about our day-to-day lives. The only way we can overcome the devil and his attacks is by the power of God. He's given us His Spirit and His Word to equip us for battle; it's our job to put on His armor for protection and use His weapons to fight back.

Christian or non-Christian, we're all given just one life on this earth, but what we do with that life makes all the difference. While we're here, God gives us two jobs to do. The first is to respond to His generous gift of forgiveness, to repent and choose to follow Him; the second is the reach the rest of the world with the Good News so that they can do the same.

Man has created many gods, but the only true God is the One who created us. And if we utilized the faith He's given us to its fullest extent, our lives would look very different. When we see God for who He truly is, we worry less about our circumstances because we know He's in control of them.

If you died tomorrow, would you be missed? Death is inevitable for each of us until Jesus returns -- and we only get one shot to live this life in a way that pleases God. When we keep in step with the Spirit, our lives will bear the fruit of the Spirit, and that fruit is what makes us the kind of people who will be missed once we're gone.