Richard Ellis Talks

While the enemy is busy on his mission to steal, kill, and destroy, Jesus is waiting to offer abundant life to all who choose it. When it comes to both the unborn and to those who have not been born again in Christ, we cannot sit idly by and watch the senseless destruction of physical and spiritual life. As Christians, we have to take a stand -- both in defending the sanctity of human life, and spreading the Gospel to offer people the hope of eternal life, too.

When we choose to follow Christ, we choose to surrender our whole lives to Him -- including our physical bodies. We are His workmanship to do with as He pleases. Scripture teaches us to yield our bodies to God as living sacrifices, knowing that Jesus offered Himself up as a living, dying, resurrected sacrifice for us.

Did you know: Even the Bible tells us that believing the Gospel is a seemingly "foolish" thing! But Scripture goes on to tell us that those who do believe will find life in it. Some people will look at us like we're "out to lunch" for our beliefs, but we've got to keep proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ anyway -- because one day, many of the skeptics who mocked us for our faith will come to us for answers when their lives take a downward turn.

We may not always see the result of God's work until we get to heaven. That doesn't lessen our responsibility to obey when He directs us to pray and to act! The Holy Spirit is in all those who believe and trust in the Lord, and as we walk in the Spirit, we need to be ready to respond when we're prompted.

It's so easy to get caught up in the distractions of this world -- but we only have one shot to do what God's called us to do with our time here. When we submit to His plan and allow Him to use our lives for His glory, He can use us to grow His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

One of the most difficult parts about following Christ is this hard truth: most of the time, things don't change overnight. Our lives don't suddenly become problem-free. Even after making the decision to follow Him, we'll still face struggles day in and day out. The difference is that when we keep ourselves focused on Christ, He gives us peace, joy, and strength to overcome those battles in a way we couldn't manage on our own.

We can study the Bible all we want, but until we're given fresh eyes through the Holy Spirit, we will never be able to truly see and know God. In order to grow deeper in our relationship with Him, we can start by asking Him to reveal Himself to us through His Spirit in Scripture.

All over the world, you can find monuments that have been built to remember men and women who gave their lives for a cause. It's important for us to remember the cost of these earthly battles -- but we also need to keep in mind that there's another battle raging constantly for the eternal future of our souls. Jesus gave His life to win that battle for us, but it's up to us to choose which side we're on.

When we first become Christians, we're spiritual newborns. But as we grow in our relationship with God, we reach a point of "adolescence" where we begin to think we can do things on our own. The trouble is, the more we develop the rebellious attitude that goes along with adolescence, the worse off we are in the Body of Christ. At some point, we need to mature spiritually into fully-grown adults, take responsibility, and do our part in the work of the Church.

The devil is always working around the clock to sucker us into his schemes. The reason we stumble and fall, time and time again, is because we keep falling for the same tricks he's always used. As followers of Christ, we have the Holy Spirit living inside us and guiding us away from the enemy's traps -- but it's up to us to obey God's prompting when He tells us to stay away.