Richard Ellis Talks

You don't have to be a "Type A" personality to make plans; even the most flexible and spontaneous among us still try to direct the outcomes of our lives! But sometimes, the way God gets us to where He wants us to go is the way we never would have chosen for ourselves. In the moments, we have a choice to make: will we worship God despite our circumstances, or shake our fists at Him when things don't go the way we planned?

Have you ever considered just how remarkable God made Jesus' time on earth? From the virgin birth to the miracle of His resurrection, throughout His life and His death in between, none of it was ordinary -- but the Father's plan was perfectly fulfilled through His Son. Jesus promises to return for us one day, and it's up to us to be ready and waiting when He makes His entrance into the world once more.

Those rumble strips in the road that help us stay alert and stay in our lane are called "sleeper lines". But did you know that God gives us sleeper lines in our spiritual lives, too? He never allows us to drift off-course without sending us warning signals. Sometimes those signals come from Scripture, and other times they come from wise people, but it's up to us whether to heed the warnings we're given or drive our lives into the ditch.

Wishy-washy people aren't just unreliable -- they're untrustworthy, because you can never count on them to follow through. And when we as Christians are unreliable in our words and our actions, it reflects on the God we serve. The Lord wants us to be reliable to Him and to other people because we are the conduits He's chosen to carry out His work. When we face obstacles in doing the job He's called us to do, we've got to commit to fighting through it, no matter how hard it gets.

Jesus' death paid the debt for our sin once and for all! There is no expiry date, fine print, or loophole on the sacrifice He made on our behalf -- we just have to choose to accept His gift. When we look to Him for our salvation He's faithful to save us, not only from our past, but from a present and a future spent without Him.

"I did it my way" might have been a great line for Frank Sinatra, but it's not a good approach for you and me if we're striving to follow Jesus! When we apply God's Word to our lives consistently and faithfully, we begin to see our lives transformed in a powerful -- and eternal -- way.

Yes, we have to work to live -- but if that's all we fill our time with, we're wasting the time God gave us here. No matter our profession, God calls us to represent Him in every facet of life and to everyone we meet. Let's spend the days of our lives in obedience to Him, living each one as though it was our last!

Unless Jesus comes back or we die young, most of us will have the privilege of growing old -- but that doesn't mean we should just sit idly by and wait for death to come! We should be spending our time preparing to go home to Heaven by soaking up God's Word, remaining teachable to the lessons He wants us to learn, and pouring into the people around us with every opportunity He gives us.

We tend to treat this life more like an amusement park than a battlefield. But we're in the midst of a spiritual battle, and the enemy wants to do everything he can to make us lose. We can choose to let hell overtake us and beat us down, or we can pick up our weapons, like prayer and worship, and fight to the very end.

We've all been there: even if we're not "the jealous type", each of us has, at some point in time, looked at somebody else and thought, "they seem to have it all." But no matter how good a person's life appears on the outside, without Christ on the inside, they're spiritually empty. No amount of money, cars, houses, good jobs, or even good morals can replace this truth: only Jesus can give us a life of true joy and fulfillment.