Taylor Mertins

I have a love/hate relationship with church signs and billboards. There are some that will always make me laugh like, "The Church Isn't Full Of Hypocrites... There's Always Room For More." But there are also plenty of signs that make me cringe like: "Accept Jesus Or Go To Hell."

Tell the story when you are up and when you are down, when all is well and when all is hell, tell the story when you are received and when you are nowhere believed. Tell the story until sinners are justified, until the devil is terrified, until Jesus is magnified, and until God is satisfied!

In America we emphasize individual freedom to such a degree that we surround ourselves with people who look likes us, think likes us, and vote like us. But saints are people who give their lives not to a donkey, and not to an elephant, but to The Lamb.

In a time when the word “love” is greatly abused, it is important to remember that the fundamental component of biblical love is not affection or hallmark cars, but service.

To love is to serve.

We can put all of our trust in our money, we can use it to do all sorts of things in the world, but if we think that it all belongs to us, or has come to us simply because we deserve it, then we’ve failed to recognize the One from whom all blessings flow.

The church doesn’t exist to make a difference. Instead, the church exists to praise the living God who fills our lives with the kind of joy that sustains us through both the mountains and valleys we experience. Church isn’t about us. It’s about God.

Whenever we open the scriptures and study we are entering into the strange new world of the bible, one that shines a light on what our lives really look like even today.

Worship is practice. We do it over and over to tone our spiritual muscles in order to do the work of the Lord.

To those who love the church: make more room for it, bring to it your best and highest devotion. And to those who are not sure about the church: you will not find perfection here, but come anyway, and help us make the church better.

Offering forgiveness isn’t easy.

Receiving it might be even worse.