Focal Passage: Acts 2:32-41  The word conviction is used in at least two ways in Scripture.  First, it is used in reference to the Holy Spirit’s work of convicting us of sin, righteousness and judgment, so that we might repent and believe the gospel (John 16:8-11). Second, it is used with the notion of someone holding a belief with “great conviction.” The two are connected. The convicted sinner comes to

Focal Passage: Genesis 3:1-6  Discernment or making sound judgments is a lost art. We have allowed a wrong interpretation of the phrase “Judge not, that you be not judged” from Matthew 7:1 to frighten us away from discerning between right and wrong, of making value judgments based on eternal truths. God repeatedly calls His people to make judgments. We are called to discern between one thing and another. In fact,

Focal Passage: Psalm 139:1-10, 13-16  Though not a Catholic, we should appreciate the words of the late Pope John Paul II in his 1995 Papal Encyclical — Evangelium Vitae — when he compared two opposing cultures: the “culture of death” that devalued life and the “culture of life” that valued life from conception to death.As Baptists whose worldview ought to be grounded in Scripture, we value life from conception to

Focal Passage: Zephaniah 3:9-20  Fear is an effective tool used by Satan to demoralize and discourage people, especially God’s people. Scripture repeatedly commands us: “Do not be afraid.” And yet, we fear anything and everything all the time: fear of loss, fear of man, fear of being without, fear of sickness, fear of death, etc.  In addition, we don’t often think of replacing fear with joy. However, if our confidence

Focal Passage: Matthew 14:22-33  Words like discouragement, melancholy, depression and spiritual lethargy are cousins —  word groupings that speak to the kind of mental and spiritual disposition that warrants our attention. The opposite of discouragement is the word courage without the prefix. Discouragement is the inability to think or act as we ought to. Courage, on the other hand, is the God-enabled ability to think and act in faith.  Jesus

Focal Passage: Luke 1:26-38  Satan uses two tools to stymie God’s people: fear and discouragement. Fear causes a person to pause out of cowardice, while discouragement paralyzes us in inaction. Together these twin temptations can prove to be deadly to a person’s faith, producing faithless lethargy. In Mary’s story we see one of these sinister sins at work: fear. Yet, Mary confronts her fear with humble submission to God. Don’t

Focal Passage: I John 3:13-18; 4:14-18  If God’s sovereign purposes give us security over fear (Romans 8:28- 39), then God’s sovereign work in us enables us to replace fear with love. If we are secure in the love of an all-caring, eternal, providential God, then we do not have to be afraid. Replacing fear with love sets us free to serve others because we know we’re secure in Jesus Christ. 

Focal Passage: Romans 8:28-39  There are very few texts in all of Scripture that are more comforting and consoling than Romans 8:28-39.  So well known is this passage that even unbelievers who have no clue as to its origins can quote this passage in part, if not the whole. However, only the child of God can know and appreciate the depth of its meaning.  These two verses remind us that

Focal Passage: Psalm 33:6-15; 18-22  We are a fearful people. We fear people, places and things. We fear the past, the present and the future. Economic, political, spiritual and physical fears plague our minds and hearts. Fear is a natural response to those things that threaten us. But too often we have misplaced fear. We have outlandish fear. As of last count there are more than 400 phobias or fears,

Focal Passage: Psalm 107:1-9  When we think of the types of sins that God will judge we do not often think of ingratitude being on that list. But according to Romans 1:21 ingratitude will be severely judged by God. And we have become an unthankful people in an unthankful nation.  The french fries are not hot enough, the service is never good enough and we’re never thankful enough. Outlandish expectations