Richard Ellis Talks

When a flock of birds is tightly knit, you know when one member is out of alignment! As Christians, it's our responsibility to look out for one another and to help those who are hurting. A body of believers that's filled with healthy people is an unstoppable force for change in a world that desperately needs Jesus!

The Bible is filled with stories of mothers who struggled through tough times, who made mistakes, and who faltered in their faith. Yet God used them as a part of His greater story to bring about incredible things! When we choose to surrender our lives -- our past, our present, and our future -- to the Lord, He can turn seemingly impossible situations around for His glory and our good.

Do you want your legacy to start and end with you, or do you want it to echo for generations to come? Throughout history, God has used ordinary men and women like you and me to carry out His plans and to impact not only the generation of today, but the generations of tomorrow, too. It's not enough for us to simply pray for our children -- we've got to model for them what it means to submit fully to the Lord, and teach them how to love and follow Him.

Rahab is a model of an incredible woman who left her sin behind and chose to obey God instead -- and in doing so, she became part of the very genealogy of Jesus Himself. When we follow Rahab's example and make a conscious decision not to let our sin define us any longer, we're able to live into the calling God has for our lives, and live out our obedience to Him.

There's nothing wrong with studying the Bible and wanting to learn, and it's true that God can use other people to help us grow in our knowledge of His Word. But it's even more important that we learn how to feed ourselves the spiritual food that can only be found in meditating directly on Scripture. When we fail to do so, we risk starving the Holy Spirit that lives within us.

Billy Graham's wife, Ruth, once said, "A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers." Nobody ever claimed marriage is simple, or easy! It's hard work, and we don't always feel like sticking around through the tough times. But instead of pointing fingers at the other person and casting blame when things aren't going smoothly or an area of our marriage is lacking, we can focus on obeying our own role as husband or wife, praying for our spouse, and letting God do His work on their heart -- and ours.

Have you ever heard the saying, "Let go of the past before you become part of it"? We've all had defining moments in life that shape us, change us, and all too often, wound us. It's easy to carry the weight of that hurt with us into the rest of our lives -- but God delights in taking those painful experiences and turning them into beautiful tools to be used for His glory, if only we allow Him to help us heal and move forward in freedom.

Our God is a God of cause and effect: when we live in obedience to Him, we experience His peace in return. Sometimes we get stuck living in our sin and we procrastinate about confessing our wrongdoing to Him. In the end, putting it off only leads to more sin -- but when we obey Him immediately, He's gracious in allowing us to turn back to Him and move forward in righteousness.

Sometimes, people treat the church more like a gym than the house of the Lord. They sign up for a membership, and they might even go on occasion, but they fail to commit at the level that's needed in order for real life change to happen. It's not enough for us to attend church as bystanders. We have to be active members and "work out" spiritually with the goal that one day, we can become trainers and help other people get spiritually fit, too.

When we find ourselves longing more for this life than for the next, it's a sure sign that we're too attached to the things of this world. Scripture promises us that all who call Jesus their Lord and Savior can look forward to an eternity spent with Him. In the meantime, we're still on this earth because God has a job for us to do -- to glorify Him before the whole world, until He calls us home.