Richard Ellis Talks

A wild horse must first be tamed before it can become usable by its owner. In the same way, we have to allow God to tame us before He can use us for His Kingdom. The more we resist Him, the more suffering comes with the process of breaking us in.

If you're a parent, some of the greatest discipleship you'll ever do is within the walls of your own home. The best way we can teach our kids about following Jesus is to follow Him ourselves. When we model what it means to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we're giving them an example of the godly living that God promises to bless.

The Bible teaches us that when we sow seeds of sin, we'll reap consequences. But when we sow seeds of righteousness, we'll reap great reward. We have an opportunity to plant seeds in the hearts of each person we meet -- let's make sure we're planting seeds of the Gospel.

Cheating -- in any relationship -- is ultimately accompanied by guilt and shame. And before cheating ever takes place physically, it starts in the heart. We can claim to love God all we want, but the way we live will show where our heart's loyalty truly lies.

In a rideshare program like Uber, the passenger tells the driver where to go, and the driver follows those instructions. In the same way, we need to treat Jesus like the passenger in our car -- He gives us a destination, and we obey His command. He may sometimes have us go to difficult places, but it's better that we face those challenges with Him than face the same inevitable trials without Him by our side.

Like all things He created, God designed marriage in a very specific and purposeful way. It's a representation of Christ and His Bride, the Church, and in the same way that Jesus sacrificially loved and gave Himself for His Bride, we're called to sacrificially love and give ourselves for our spouse if we enter into the covenant of marriage. The only way to do that is to first focus on our own relationship with the Lord, and then seek someone who does the same.

Jesus said that as His followers, we are the light of the world. But that means we have to shine in such a way that our brightness draws others out of the darkness and into His light. When we let go of the distractions that hold us back, we can run the race that God's set before us, "lights out" and fully focused on the eternal prize.

It's easy to criticize someone in authority! But the Bible teaches us to pray for them instead. No person who's been placed in leadership has been put there outside of God's sovereignty. Let's pray that God will work in their lives and lead their hearts and decisions as they're entrusted with leading others.

Time after time in Scripture, we read the stories of people who made some pretty "jacked up" mistakes. Yet God still used them to accomplish His work in the world. It's important for us not to continue living in sin once we've been redeemed -- but there's nothing we can do that God can't turn around and use for His glory.

Our society continues to face challenges surrounding racial issues. But that opens the door for us as believers to bridge gaps and put into action the love that Christ has called us to demonstrate to all people -- without exclusion. It's one thing to know what the Bible says about loving our neighbors; it's another to do what it says. Only when that command is put into action by you and me on a daily, personal level can true change begin to take place in the world around us.