The Encouragement Blog

God loves to meet us and change us where we are, right where we are living at this moment. He doesn’t wait until we have it all together before God visits us and cleans us up. King David knew this when he wrote Psalm 51 and asked God to give him a “right Spirit.” Some of us can identify with

When the old year comes to a close, we are all tempted to look back upon what we accomplished and where we would like a “mulligan”…a do-over. This is natural for human beings and not a bad exercise if we do it in a way that improves us and doesn’t puff us up as we consider our victories or depress

When Jesus was gathering His disciples, He would often say “Come and See” to them to encourage the men to investigate and observe something about which they were skeptical. As we enter into 2016, make a simple resolution to focus on one thing. That should be Jesus. Many of us are unsure about who Jesus really was…or is… In 2016

Sin is rarely a one-shot deal. On Wall Street they have a saying about bad news being revealed by a corporation. It is call the Cockroach Theory…because “there is always more than one.” That means that when a company announces bad news…there is almost assuredly more bad news to follow! We are probably involved with repeated sin. Maybe our drug

  The fairy tales like Cinderella and Snow White all revolve around a damsel in distress being rescued by a handsome prince. These stories are timeless and were our favorites and now are the favorites of our children. Evil surrounds our heroine and she faces death and poverty unless someone comes to her rescue. Events always look dire and awful

Sinful behavior is frequently the result of many thoughts and actions. Sin isn’t a one-shot deal! Life-destroying sin is the result of many little sins feeding on one another until Satan has messed us up. Satan messed up some of our marriages with adultery. Maybe our spouses were overweight or no longer as romantic as they once were. Our lustful

Sin is real. Anyone who truly believes that sin does not exist has not been paying attention! In real-life, when we are honest, we look anywhere and see the evidence of sin. We see greed, snarky comments on social media, and mean and angry attitudes. Just think about your language the last time someone cut you off on the freeway!!

God, Jesus—whoever You are—I am frightened. You see, I have never been loved in my life. I cannot remember when I truly felt the warm flannel blanket of a mother’s love around my shoulders. God, I have trouble with any father figure in my life because mine hit me for years and
my mother did nothing to stop it. In my

Does it mean [Christ] no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death?… I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about

God has an individual, specific plan for each one of us. From before we were born, God knew who we were going to be and what His plan was for our lives. He made each of us perfectly different for exactly the role He has in mind for us to play. He also gave us the ability to decide for