By Nathan Washburn Pastor, First Baptist Church, Greenbrier Focal Passage: Acts 4:36-37; 9:26-27; 11:19-26 Courage is slippery. It’s not something that is cemented in someone once for all time. Like any one of the number of feelings we have, it can wax and wane, come and go. In this way, we are not like God. He is immutable, unchanging — the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). However, we do

By Nathan Washburn Pastor, First Baptist Church, Greenbrier Focal Passage: Ruth 1:8-17 Everyone loves a good story of redemption. To watch tragedy befall someone, see them endure the hard road set before them, and rejoice when the patience pays off and hope is restored is wonderfully pleasing to us. However, in the middle of the story — after tragedy and before redemption — there is tremendous heartache and doubt. Will this

By Nathan Washburn Pastor, First Baptist Church, Greenbrier Focal Passage: I Kings 3:3-14; 4:29-34 We are terrible at seeking two things at once. In fact, we cannot seek two things at once. Only one thing can actually occupy the primary place of prominence in our lives. We will use our energy, time, and resources to seek something or someone first, and anything that pulls us toward something or someone else will

By Nathan Washburn Pastor, First Baptist Church, Greenbrier Focal Passage: Numbers 13:26-30; 14:6-10, 21-24 Faith is “the assurance of things hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1a). If we’re hoping for something, how can we also be assured of it? Faith. It brings the future reality into the present and lives as if it exists now because it will one day be a present reality. Faith is “the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews

By Nathan Washburn Pastor, First Baptist Church, Greenbrier Focal Passage: Matthew 4:1-10 Jesus can sympathize with us. He’s been in similar situations that we have, faced similar temptations, and felt similar heaviness of heart. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect had been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). When we read

By Nathan Washburn Pastor, First Baptist Church, Greenbrier Focal Passage: Ephesians 6:10-20 No lawyer goes into the courtroom without a good argument. No athlete enters the field at game time without being dressed for the competition. No surgeon enters the operating room without being prepped with the knowledge, cleanliness, and right tools for the procedure. I guess it’s presumptuous to say no one does any of these things because I’m

By Nathan Washburn Pastor, First Baptist Church, Greenbrier Focal Passage: 1 John 4:1-6 Not all discrimination is bad. Sometimes it’s appropriate, even necessary. In general, when speaking of excluding someone based on gender or skin color or ability, then yes, discrimination is not good and doesn’t glorify God, who’s made all people with His image imprinted on them. But when it comes to the words and beliefs put forth by those

By Nathan Washburn Pastor, First Baptist Church, Greenbrier Focal Passage:  Deuteronomy 18:9-18 It matters which voices we listen to. We are shaped, both in our thinking and in our feeling, in large part by the information we take in through our ears. This is why Jesus said, “Take care what you listen to” (Mark 4:24). It’s why He repeated often when He taught, “He who has ears to hear, let

By Nathan Washburn Pastor, First Baptist Church, Greenbrier Focal Passage: Mark 9:17-29 Demons believe in God. They are not atheists (who claim there is no God), and they are not agnostics (who claim that we can’t know whether there’s a God). No, demons are monotheists — they know and believe there is one God — and they even fear him. “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the

By Nathan Washburn Pastor, First Baptist Church, Greenbrier Focal Passage: Revelation 12:7-12 Satan is not the little devilish cartoon perched upon our shoulder whispering in our ears to do the “wrong” thing. He is the leader of an all-out assault on God and His kingdom. He sought to be equal with God and was denied. He sought to overcome Christ and was denied. He now seeks to disarm, discourage, and defeat