“It” has been said:  “Holding a grudge is like drinking poison, hoping the other person will die.”  It sounds like an apt definition.  When we harbor something against another person, they color everything we do.  They become the uninvited guest at everything we do. 

We are not letting the other person off the hook, on the contrary, we are holding them accountable.  Forgiving someone requires we acknowledge they did something to us – something wrong.  We are choosing to view their...

Last week in church, we discussed the idea that we have a choice: we could either live according to the Law of Moses, or according to the Grace of Jesus.  I pointed out that if we choose to live according to the Law – we are obligated to keep it completely.  Continued within the Law is a “one strike” policy that says that if you break one single part, you are guilty of breaking it all (Jas 2:10).  This is why I believe the Law was never designed to make us righteous, in fact, it proves ...

Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

—Matthew 4:10

I think that God has given me a little bit of a spirit of a crusader and I am crusading where I can that Christians of all denominations and shades of theological thought might be restored again to our original purpose.

We're here to be worshipers first and workers only second. We take a convert and immediately make a worker out of him. God never meant it to be so. God meant that a convert should learn to b...

I had a great time at the Seder, the other night, I hope everyone else did.  I also love how, if we are listening, God can show us something new every time we do “the same old thing.”

Seder has essentially been the same thing every year for THOUSANDS of years.  For us, I really don’t know how long it had been done before I became pastor, all I know is that I have done it 7 or 8 times – always the same.  I worry about that – doing the same thing over and over again is a recipe for l...

"He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30).

If you become a necessity to someone else's life, you are out of God's will. As a servant, your primary responsibility is to be a "friend of the bridegroom" (3:29). When you see a person who is close to grasping the claims of Jesus Christ, you know that your influence has been used in the right direction. And when you begin to see that person in the middle of a difficult and painful struggle, don't try to prevent it, but pray that his diff...

And when the centurion... saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. Mark 15:39

The current mania of men and women to succeed in the world is a good thing perverted. The desire to fulfill the purpose for which we were created is of course a gift from God, but sin has twisted this impulse about and turned it into a selfish lust for first place and top honors. By this lust the whole world of mankind is driven as by a demon, and there is no e...

This weekend, Calvary Baptist Church celebrated 50 years in service to the Elko Community.  I told Pastor Sam, that it was nice to see the younger churches come of age.

I truly appreciate Sam and all the folks at Calvary for what they do in spreading the Great News, and I value their partnership in serving the area.  In fact there are several churches that I consider to be friends of ours.  No, I am not going to name them, because they know who they are.  Once a month I get together with ...

I was invited to have a debate on the existence of God the other day – I declined.

I used to debate, and I was good at it, but not anymore – for several reasons.  The primary reason is that in a debate there is a winner and a loser.  God is not a contest and He is not a reward either.  His existence is both obvious and unprovable.  Obvious because of everything He has created (see Rom 1:20).  Unprovable because no matter how many “points” you make, no matter how devastating your arg...

If We've Lost Majesty

They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.

—Psalm 145:11-12

If you want to pray strategically, in a way which would please God, pray that God might raise up men who would see the beauty of the Lord our God and would begin to preach it and hold it out to people, instead of offering peace of mind, deliverance from cigarettes, a better job and a nicer co...