Richard Ellis Talks

God's the ultimate source of comfort for all of our pain. But He's the source for us to be able to comfort others in their time of need, too! Today we might be in a position to do the comforting -- but tomorrow it could be you or me who needs to be comforted. Instead of turning to worldly pleasures as a way to ease our struggles, He wants us to fix our eyes on Him, and point others to Him as well.

If we ever find ourselves questioning whether the Lord expects us to love even our greatest enemies, we only need to remember: Jesus knew Judas would betray Him, and still He chose to keep him close and serve him as a friend. Sometimes God calls us to serve our greatest enemies. Regardless of the circumstance, we have a responsibility to obey at all costs, because one day we'll have to stand before the Lord and answer to Him for the choices we made.

 

We live in a world that proclaims all truth is relative, and what's true for one person doesn't have to be true for the next. But truth is absolute, and when it comes to our salvation, the only truth is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As Christians, it's our job to be bold and speak that truth in love to the world around us!

As Christians, there's a constant war going on inside each of us, and it's a battle between the flesh and the Holy Spirit. The flesh will always tell us that we should give into temptation because it's offering us something we think we need. But when we die to ourselves and live for Christ, He gives us the Spirit to resist that temptation -- and offers us the only kind of life that's really worth living!

Romans 12:2 teaches us not to conform to the patterns of this world. But why is that so hard for us to do? One of the devil's greatest strategies is to use temporary desires and material things to pull our attention away from God -- and sometimes it doesn't take much for him to succeed. When we fix on our eyes on heaven instead of on earthly pleasures, we can find contentment knowing that life in Christ offers so much more than we'll ever find in this world!

Have you ever left a jug of milk in the fridge for way too long? When you eventually open the jug and pour it out, you can see (and smell!) that the milk's gone sour. In the same way, when we choose to simply ignore the sin in our lives instead of actually getting rid of it, it sours us from the inside out. But when we choose to "pour out" the sour milk of our sin, God chooses to "pour out" His blessings on our lives in return!

The Old Testament's filled with stories about the Lord commanding His people to do things that don't necessarily make sense to us today. Yet in the end, all of God's commands culminated in Jesus dying for us so that two thousand years later, we can all be saved. Even though we might not get why God did what He did in Scripture, we've got to trust that His plans are always perfect and that everything He did was for a purpose and a reason.

There's a saying that "true beauty" is found when you look into a woman's eyes, and see Jesus in her heart! Men are naturally attracted to sex, but the right kind of man will be able to look past temptation and hold out for true beauty. The best way for a woman to attract the kind of man who values her in all the right ways is to stop focusing on external appearances, and instead allow God to give her an internal makeover -- the kind that will last for eternity!

Rahab was a woman who seemed like a nobody -- until God stepped in. Through her faith in the Lord, and God's use of a couple of spies who ultimately saved her and her whole family, Rahab became a beautiful example of how God can use someone if only they have faith and are willing to be an instrument for His glory. And like Rahab, God can use any of us too, no matter our background, if we only let Him!

Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in living out our own lives that we overlook those who are dying (spiritually) around us. Part of surrendering our lives to God involves allowing Him to break our hearts for the things that break His. When we see someone who's withering away spiritually, let's not allow ourselves to look away, but instead, let's have compassion on them in such a way that it moves us to do something about it!