Richard Ellis Talks

When it comes to complaining to God, we can learn from the Israelites, who didn’t get to see the Promised Land, because they chose to complain instead of believe! It’s easy to complain when we’re not getting what we want, but the Bible tells us to have faith in God without complaining, and put our trust in the One who has never let us down in the past.

Just like homing pigeons have some way of always returning home, Christ followers have the Holy Spirit, who draws us back to God no matter how far away we may drift. Repentance is not only for the unbeliever, but also for the believer, to stop sinning wherever we are, and return to God!

We all make mistakes in our lives and we all need to turn to God and repent. True repentance starts with confession and continues with a changed mind and behavior.

Maybe it's in our family, our workplace, our social group, we're all in a place where we're looking up to leaders, and others are looking to us as leaders. And where there are humans involved, there'll be mistakes. So let's be quick to acknowledge when we mess up, apologize, receive wisdom from trusted others so we don't repeat the mistake, and MOVE FORWARD.

When a person receives Jesus as Savior, we become part of God's body. And the Great Commission for God's body - the Church - is to be His hands, His feet, His voice, to be a light in this dark world who also needs to hear of His hope and love!

If you've ever seen a sheep getting sheered, you'll know that the more still they stay, the more complete the sheer. What a great analogy for a believer, who needs to allow God to sheer off what needs to be gone, in order for us to grow in Him!

Even though our sin doesn't make God stop loving us, we need to be willing to confess it and receive His help. When we get to the place where we see our sinfulness as God sees it, we can then truly commit in our heart to give it all to Him!

Trials and struggles will come. That's the truth of everyone's faith walk. However, for the Christ follower, God has purpose in everything to make us holy, and no one will take better care of us than Him. So let's release to Him everything that's keeping us from Him!

We’re born into a "sin-nature-nosedive". And even though the engines are off, and we're coasting - not sensing that we have no power - we can turn to Jesus to give us the power to fly! And with His power, we can turn "nose up" and allow Him to work in us and through us to live the life God intended for us to live.

The Bible's like a "love letter" written to us by God, and the more we read it over and over, the more we learn about Him. And it makes much more sense when we ask Him to reveal Himself to us through the Scripture, and when He does, we can then help others learn about Him as well!