If I am to be honest, I spend much of my time building a house in the wrong city. I rise and toil. I pursue and work. I make every effort to make sure that all of my ducks are in a row.
And the reality is that this means nothing.
What I really need is PEACE. We Need PEACE.
And we must constantly seek peace. Not the peace that comes from treaties or comradery. Not the peace that avoids conflict at the expense of character. And not the peace that is fueled by emotions.
Peace With God.
Romans 5 1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Aside from Jesus … there is no peace.
Sure, we can brag about our good deeds, we can proclaim all of our great accomplishments, and we can build an empire.
But none of those will give us anything in the Kingdom.
We have peace with God ONLY with Jesus.
Solomon knew this as he wrote to “fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man … “
Paul knew it when he declared himself the “chief of sinners”
Peter knew it when he stood before Jesus in absolute failure and had to declare his love of Jesus … even though he had TOTALLY FAILED HIM.
And then there is us. We have nothing as we stand before God. Nothing. All we can do is fall before Him and ask for Jesus … and in that, we have peace.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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When Peter was finally turned loose, he walked out a call that changed the world. And he walked out this call from what Jesus said to him long before he was ready.
Matthew 16 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Before Peter was Rock, Jesus called Him Rock.
Before Peter was following, Jesus was calling.
Before Peter was binding and loosing things, Jesus was allowing him to figure out that he was not capable of on his own accord.
But Jesus knew.
And He knows with you.
In your imperfections, God wants to use you to change the world.
In your deficiencies, God wants to make you strong.
And In your shame, God wants to show you that “there is now no condemnation” so that you can walk out of your shame and walk in His love that you might love others.
What a deal.
You get Him.
And He wants to charge over the ”gates of Hell” with you leading the charge.
Praise God for God.
Walk Into Your Calling.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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John 13 37Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
Matthew 26 33Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”
Matthew 2635But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.
John 18 10Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
Written for all to see, Peter made promise after promise after promise to Jesus. Finding fish, he believed. Finding faith, he spoke. Finding that he could be REAL with Jesus, He RESPONDED.
What a hero. Not a hero with an H but a hero with h.
Our Hero, Jesus, opened up a door that we can walk through.
And Peter, in spite of his failure, chose to be a hero and walk through that door. But he (Peter) had to realize something. He had to realize that he (Peter) was nothing without He (Jesus).
And that’s just it:
Jesus = Everything
Peter + Jesus = Everything
Peter = Nothing
These are three equations that we must learn today.
Because, like Peter, we are all simply men, and women, who make empty promises, brag, and, literally, do NOTHING.
But with Jesus? We can change the world.
Walk … Into Your Calling.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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When you are an expert … you have it all figured out.
You dot your i’s and cross your t’s
You show up early and leave late
You outwork your competition
And when you finish … you come out on top.
It was no different for Peter. He was an expert fisherman. He knew how to navigate the seas and he knew when and where to cast his net. And yet—-he was failing … at everything.
So when Jesus showed up, he was ready to listen.
Luke 54When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” 5Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” 6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”.
For all the things that he did wrong, Peter did a lot of things right. And responding to Jesus by saying: “But because you say so I will let down the nets” changed his life. And it is the crucial piece to ALL of our lives. You see … we are NOTHING without God. NOTHING.
The first part of us walking into our calling is NEEDING GOD. We NEED Him. He is not one of the keys, He is THE KEY.
So be an expert. Be GREAT at what you do. But realize that in the Kingdom we have a word for this: Anointed
Ask God to ANOINT you. Ask Him to do something with your expertise.
And when you do that … humbly give Him everything. It will change your world … forever.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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As we live a life of comfort and pleasure, let us consider these things:
I have often wondered why Jesus went where He went, why He did what He did, and how He chose who He would talk to …
And as I reflected upon this last week, I became very convicted on one thing:
Often, Jesus showed up looking for a fight.
The original title of this blog was going to be “Walking Into The Storm” but, today, it is called:
An Enemy You Can Not Defeat
And you would do well to listen to this. Because Jesus wasn’t looking to just fight, He was looking to fight the enemies that would eventually defeat you had He not dealt with them.
And so He takes His disciples to Caesarea Philippi … “The Gates Of Hell” … in order to tell them that Peter, the coward, would advance upon it … and defeat it.
How frustrating it must be for the enemy to realize that the weakest of human flesh would conquer him … and yet, that is what the plan is.
Matthew 1613 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
“And on this rock I will build my church”
With Jesus, we become amazing. And yet, without Him, we are bound for the pits of Hell.
This is not a new word.
It is not something that we should take lightly.
And it isn’t something that we should be hiding from the world.
It is the hope of nations.
When Chuck Colson said “I meet millions who tell me that they feel demoralized by the decay around us. Where is the hope? The hope that each of us have is not in who governs us, or what laws are passed, or what great things that we do as a nation. Our hope is in the power of God working through the hearts of people, and that’s where our hope is in this country; that’s where our hope is in life.”this is exactly what he was talking about.
And as we worship Jesus, let’s remember His life. When He was powerless, He went and tore up the temple, He went and defended the lady who was to be stoned, He went to meet the Samaritan reject, and He went to confront the devil at the Gates of Hell. And then He did it in the spiritual, which would have to be ALL THE MORE TERRIFYING. And He did it so that you could have victory over “An Enemy You Can Not Defeat”
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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After traveling thousands of miles, the eunuch in charge of the treasury for Queen Candace must have been devastated. All he saw were do not enter signs in Jerusalem. Some of them have been excavated.
No Women Allowed
No Gentiles
No Eunuchs
No Foreigners
And so he began his long journey home.
And in Jerusalem, as the church began to rise in incredible ways, Philip probably had the same confusion.
Acts 8 12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women …26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road–the desert road-that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
What was he reading?
Was this servant reading about Jesus?
And did he recognize that God had written a note DIRECTLY to him in Isaiah 56?
Isaiah 53 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 56 3 Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.” And let not any eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.” 4 For this is what the Lord says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant-
I am sure that he did.
And I am sure that any sign that might turn him away melted away when he realized that God did not write it.
As the eunuch found out: God is not rejecting us.
As Philip found out: God will send us on some strange missions.
But in all of these things—God is working out a perfect plan.
This life isn’t about our scars.
It is about His.
It isn’t about our rejection.
It is about His.
It isn’t about our mistakes.
It is about HisSacrifice.
We are saved, truly, by the blood of the Lamb.
And He sends messengers to Ethiopia and to Iceland and to all corners of the world to let us know that we are invited into the family.
Through the cross we have been forgiven—we are accepted as we are. And He will go out of His way to make that known.
Thank God … for God.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Every world leader consumed with evil looks the same.
And as I read this passage this week … it was no different with Nebuchadnezzar:
Ezekiel 267“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: From the north I am going to bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, with horsemen and a great army. 8He will ravage your settlements … he will set up siege works against you … raise his shields against you. 9He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and demolish your towers … 10His horses will be so many that they will cover you with dust. Your walls will tremble … 11The hooves of his horses will trample all your streets; he will kill your people with the sword … 13I will put an end to your noisy songs …
He was insatiable and he destroyed a city and a people with a harshness that could not be fathomed.
And as I read this, I couldn’t help but think about Hitler, or Nero, or …
And yet, we have choices.
And those choices can not be emphasized enough.
You see, I would remind you that kings and rulers and armies and principalities … all of the powerful nations … and weapons … and all of the greed … and lust … and fear … None of these will win in the long term.
It is always interesting to me that the broken would blame the very thing that will save us.
Joshua said it pretty well:
Joshua 2415But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
When God gives us an option, we would do well to accept it. It is the best option we are going to get.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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As we celebrate Martin Luther King Day, we need to get back to “having a dream”, and run away from “being a victim”. MLK’s dad knew this when he changed from calling him Michael Junior and began calling him Martin Luther. And Martin did not disappoint the legacy that his father bestowed upon him.
And so today, in the spirit of this idea, I tell you:
Find Your Freedom
God tells us:
Ephesians 2 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
God’s workmanship!
What a privilege it is to be God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus. And for 2026, He is challenging us to find our good works—the works that God has prepared us to do!
I pray that we would all, simply, do that.
Nehemiah did that. Broken, and enslaved, Nehemiah found a way to the top of the servant pool—cupbearer to the King. And from the way these verses read, he must have truly poured God’s love out on a King who was over him.
How did this happen?
I have a theory on how this happened and I am convicted to share that this morning:
#1. Nehemiah Repented. He didn’t play the victim. He didn’t blame someone else. He didn’t think of all the people who wronged him. He repented.
Nehemiah 1 5Then I said: “O Lord , God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you.
#1. Nehemiah Prayed. He cried out to the living God and begged for help.
Nehemiah 1 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” I was cupbearer to the king.
#3. Nehemiah Acted In Faith. He did not cower down. He did not view the situation through man’s lenses. He acted in Faith and did what God lead him to do.
Nehemiah 2 2 so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.” I was very much afraid, 3 but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” 4 The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.” … 7 I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests.
When Nehemiah went to Jerusalem and began his project, it took him 52 days to do the impossible. And this, too, is worth exploring and reading about and asking God about. But, today, we will focus on the simple idea that God has a plan for all of us to walk out. It is a plan that we would do well to follow and a plan that revolves around us KNOWING that we are the creation of Jesus—that we are God’s Workmanship and that He wants us to do His good works.
The old testament gives us incredible pictures of Nehemiah, Esther, Moses, and Joseph— all believers going before people who have all the power and asking them to do what God is leading them to do … all risk their lives. All face punishment or even death for what they are doing. And all have to take a leap of faith.
What is this for you?
Ephesians 2 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Much like Nehemiah, it probably isn’t something that will make your life “better” in the carnal sense, but rather something that requires a “leap of faith” to do the works that God has prepared in advance for you to do.
Find Your Freedom.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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As I prayed on Christmas Day, I asked God to do a new thing in me that was ABOLUTELY SPECIFIC to my daily life.
This is rooted in a scripture that my daughter gave me on Christmas day:
Jeremiah 19 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Continuing in the theme that I began on Christmas Day, I would like to make reference to Romans 12.
Romans 121 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
In this verse, Paul gives a powerful word. And as I listened to an incredible speaker yesterday I wrote and listened to these verbs:
Present Yourself
DO NOT Conform
Be Transformed
Think In Humility
She encouraged us to:
Be Transformed That We Might Hear The Word Of God
Continually Surrender
Be Renewed Daily
As I read and pray this morning, I can’t help but think of a very important story about eggs, carrots, and coffee.
The world is a powerful place. And our daily walk demands that we are in constant pursuit of Jesus if we want to be effective and truly make a difference. Much like boiling water on eggs, the word can harden us on the inside. Much like boiling water on carrots, the world can soften us on the outside. But the believer who is transformed by surrendering daily? The believer who is transformed by surrendering daily changes the world much like coffee—the boiling water changes the entire atmosphere around that person, enhancing the aroma, transforming the coffee itself, and creating a situation where others are drawn to the very item in the boiling water.
As we Plant and Uproot, I am convicted that God wants to do this by acting in accordance with Romans 12.
He wants us to begin a new crop while removing weeds.
Only God can do these things in us while still loving us for who we are.
The heart of the Father NEVER changes our personality.
He NEVER makes us into something different than what we are.
He NEVER looks on us and says—we must get rid of this trait.
He takes what we are, who we are, and how we are and He radically transforms us into a miracle.
And He can do it each and every day … so Surrender, Be Transformed, and Present.
And if you don’t succeed? Repent and try it all again. Thank You Jesus.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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2 MINUTE WARNING 