Richard Ellis Talks

Jesus' death was sufficient to save us once and for all. We don't have to identify ourselves by the sin we've committed, and live our lives by our transgressions. He offers us a clean slate when we accept His free gift of salvation -- a gift that was made possible only by His death on the cross, and that has the power to change us for eternity.

Jesus doesn't just tell us the importance of spending time alone with God -- He shows us the importance of spending time alone with God. When we're with Him in the secret place, He empowers us and strengthens us. We can't have power in our life "out of the closet" unless we're spending time "in the closet" with Him.

When Jesus walked this earth, He stood up at one point and spoke the prophecy of Isaiah. He declared that He was the One who had come to fulfill the promise: delivering hope to the poor, healing to the brokenhearted, and joy to those in mourning. No matter how damaged our lives may appear, He promises to bring beauty out of any pile of ash when we surrender it to Him.

God always provides us a way of escape. But often we miss it because we're too busy looking around at all of the temptations from which He's trying to save us! Scripture tells us to flee from sin and run toward righteousness before our lives are destroyed.

God wants to use you and me to do great things for His Kingdom. Often, the obstacle preventing that from happening is...you and me. We question His ability to fulfill His promises. What if we spent less time asking whether He's able to do what He says, and more time stepping out in obedience and allowing Him to do it?

We might think we're fooling God when we try to hide our sin, but He's already seen it within us. He's gracious to search us, and if we ask Him, He'll reveal our struggles to us. It's better to go through a "souloscopy" than to struggle with symptoms of problems that He can easily fix while ignoring the problems themselves.

 

In earthly terms, "sabotage" is a tactic used to destroy something that's of value to the other side. In spiritual terms, it's not much different -- but it comes at a much higher cost. The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He opposes God's plans for us and constantly tries to sabotage God's promises to provide us with a hope and a future. We have a choice: whose words are we going to believe?

We've become desensitized to abortion and the death toll it creates because we live in a culture that not only accepts it, but also celebrates it. Our society values the protection of the environment more than the protection of human life. While it's important that we care for the earth, our priority needs to be saving people -- body and soul.

Scripture tells the story of a man who invited many people to a party, but they all made excuses why they couldn't come. So instead, he had his servant go out into the streets and the alleys and invite the poor, the blind, the crippled and the lame. God invites everyone to His party in Heaven -- and He uses us to hand out the invitations, even to people we may not like.

The gaming world is filled with non-player characters, or "NPCs" that fill space and have no interaction with the player or the outcome of the game. Here's the good news: Christians aren't NPCs! We can -- and should -- live our faith journey as active participants. In God's world, everyone matters and is important, regardless of skill, qualification, or past failure. In fact, it's only through His strength and power that we're able to win in the game called "Life".