Richard Ellis Talks

The nature of sin means that as soon as we're born, our lives are headed into a nosedive. As we grow, we can make the choice to continue in that downward spiral, telling ourselves the lie that we can fix it on our own. Or, we can realize that only Jesus can give us the power to turn "nose up" and head in a different direction by allowing Him to work in us.

As Christians, we live in a fallen world that's constantly drawing us away from God and His design for our lives. The devil's always trying to take us out -- but God's given us the armor to fight back. When we arm ourselves with Scripture and start each day strengthened by His Word, we're better able to resist the schemes and attacks of the enemy.

When we consider that the Bible is God's Living Word to us, it becomes more apparent why it's so important for us to read it over, and over, and over again! It takes effort to understand Scripture and develop a love for studying it. But none of it will make sense unless we ask Him to reveal Himself within its pages, and when He does, we discover ways to help others learn about Him, too.

God chooses people who are humble and willing to obey Him, no matter how ignorant they might feel. He doesn't want to use us because of all the great knowledge we can obtain, He wants to use us so that He gets the glory. The only qualification we need in order to do His work is a spirit of humility -- He'll take care of the rest!

God wants to use us to do His work, but we get so busy doing our own thing that we wind up exhausted! When we obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit, we do the things that He gives us strength to do. Not only that, but He'll lead us into times of rest, too -- times that allows us to focus on who we are in Him.

We all have dates in our lives that are etched in our memories forever -- whether it's for better or for worse. And when it comes to the grief, sorrow, and pain that some of those more difficult days hold, it's especially important for us to remember that it's still a day that the Lord's made, and therefore, that we can rejoice in it. When we're tempted to allow Satan to rule over those tough dates, let's remember the Spirit that God's given us -- and then let's take back those dates and give them to the Lord!

The ministry of Jesus when He walked the earth was hands on, as He touched and healed all kinds of people. And the ministry of Jesus is still hands on today, because God extends His hands to us and calls us to minister to those same people. Instead of being worried about what we're going to encounter, let's be willing to get messy in ministry and serve who the Lord is asking us to serve!

Leaven, or yeast, is used as a biblical analogy in two very different ways. It can represent evil, like in the forms of complaining or disobedience, as an example of how an infection in one person can negatively affect the whole Church body. On the other hand, it can also represent us as Christians in the world: we're meant to infect this planet in a good way on behalf of the Kingdom of God!

God has made a way for us to be in right relationship with Him through His Son. So when we, as His creation, are far from Him, He misses us and calls us back to Himself. It's important for our relationship with Him to be strong and healthy because whether we realize it or not, other people around us are affected by how committed we are to following Him -- and whether we choose to live in obedience or to disobey His direction in our lives.

Real spiritual "heart change" begins with a kind of godly sorrow that leads us to repentance. But when we've repented of our sin, we should always follow it up with action steps. When we truly repent, we don't go back to doing the same thing over and over again -- we allow God to help us and strengthen us to make permanent changes in our lives.