Oswald Chambers was good this morning . . . “Jesus Christ did not say ‘Go and save souls’ (the salvation of souls is the supernatural work of God), but ‘Go and teach, i.e. disciple, all nations’, and you cannot make disciples unless you are a disciple yourself.”

Chambers also makes the point that Jesus rebuked the disciples for rejoicing in successful service - i.e. the devils were subject unto them. That reveals a jacked up perspective and a skewed focus. It’s not about the results. It’s about the abiding. If the abiding is there then the fruit will come. But it is all about the abiding! It is all about enjoying God and esteeming Him everything to us. That is why we can walk consistently regardless of “how things are going”. Because, to us, things are not going well because of recent supposed successes in ministry. Things are going good to us because God is good, regardless of how our circumstances are looking. I believe God often allow the dry times to teach us what is real so that we can rejoice in Him.

I got an email from someone recently asking me what to do about feeling so distant from God and everyone in church. Below is my response. I thought it might help some of you who are struggling with the same thing.

Proverbs 16:3 “Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established.” What do you do when you don’t know what to do to get back on track? “Repent and do the firstworks.”In other words, go back to the basics! Some keys to get in place…

1. Force yourself into the spiritual disciplines of prayer and reading the Bible. This needs to be TODAY! Just start with a single chapter today from Psalms. (One Psalm a day) and then pour out whatever is on your heart before the Lord today in prayer.
2. Force yourself to weekly fellowship with other believers every Sunday. You need time for God to speak to you from His Word and to have the time of worship with other Christians. This is how God will encourage you. Make whatever choice you need to make in order to be there on Sunday but by all means make the choice! Don’t sell God and His people out for $6 an hour! We need you and you need us.

I say “force yourself” in both of these cases because when the old nature is “running the show” your desire will not be to spend time with God OR His people. You have to put yourself in a position where you can get back to spiritual health again. And sometimes that requires you taking your spiritual medicine. And spiritual medicine often doesn’t taste very good intially.

When Nate broke his leg he would weep and cry and moan about how bad the pain was but did NOT want to take the  “yucky medicine.” Kelly and I had to force him to take the medicine. After some time and him seeing that the medicine made him feel so much better, he no longer resisted taking it. He was glad for it.

Are you ready to start making these choices RIGHT NOW??? You have to meet me half way by making these choices. At that point, we can give you whatever support you need to continue to thrive in your walk with the Lord.

Love,  Jim

I had a great time last Tuesday (October 17) talking about what the Bible teaches on tongues. We had 19 college students show up at my house, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. If you were there and have any comments/suggestions/whatever, please shoot me an email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or post on this website - I would appreciate it! Check our website for a poll that would help me know what to do next. I would like to do some equipping-like teaching to take you deeper on some subjects a couple of times per month. Make sure you vote!

I gained possession of God’s victory for me on Thursday morning again.  I had been struggling with contentment in my life. God has shown me that I’m to set my focus on Him and rest in the fact that I have Him, am being held by Him, and am in the center of His plan for my life [Remember that "I'm in God's eternal plan."].

I don’t need to be running after results in ministry. I need to be resting in His sovereignty and His love for me. “LORD, I love you. Give me the wherewithal to live in contentment. Anything else reveals contamination because it reveals that I am not satisfied with You. I choose to get my eyes off of my circumstances and onto You.”

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

I saw Jesus today in an interesting place. My reading today was from John 20:14-16 “;And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, SUPPOSING HIM TO BE THE GARDENER, saith unto him…”

My time with the Lord was a bit on the dry side… I wanted brokenness…I wanted to see God clearly moving in my life… But it didn’t happen when I had my quiet time so much as when one of our students came to talk to me today. It was a lot like when Mary thought that Jesus was the gardener when, in fact, it was Jesus. For me, I thought I was talking to a student when, in fact, it was Jesus speaking very clearly to me. Wow! It brought tears to my eyes.

I wonder if you saw Jesus today. Are you looking for Him to speak to you throughout the day OR do you get out of that looking for Jesus mode when your quiet time is done? It may very well be that you saw and heard from Him today while you were talking to someone else. Listen for Him. You might be surprised how He talking to you.

In my reading this morning I was just thinking about how people often see their time with God as a time to “fuel up”. In other words, their quiet time with God in the morning is supposed to give them what they need in terms of emotional whatever to get them through the rest of their day. That isn’t a good perspective. That leaves you in a position where your Christian life becomes relegated to moving from one emotional experience to another. Your walk becomes contingent upon getting that next “fix” of God.

Contrast that approach with John 15:4: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” It isn’t about “fueling up” but “plugging in” and yielding to the Spirit of God in your life.” The Bible calls this “abiding.”

The beauty in this biblical approach is that you are never running out of fuel. Your power isn’t about how much fuel you got this morning. It is about continuing to be sensitive to the Spirit of God in your life in each moment throughout the day. And this is the key in how we become fruitful as Christians…It isn’t “making it happen” but by abiding in Christ. We take up our cross daily, as Jesus said, and present ourselves anew each morning as living sacrifices (Rom.12:1). Your life then ceases being your life. It is now the life of Christ - “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” And then fruit comes as we live FROM JESUS as opposed to living FOR JESUS.

So what is the key to my daily time with the Lord? - Is it time to “fuel up?” — NO WAY. It is time to refocus, to recommit, and to abide in Him. We don’t have to look for that next emotional experience but rather enjoy the sweet fellowship and love that the Father has toward us as His children. Just trust Him and obey Him as He leads us in each step of our day.

Proverbs 5 really got me praying this morning for my family and the families of those around me. Verses 1-14 are weighty and represent the prayer of a father - the pleadings of a father to his child regarding sexual sin.

I found myself begging God for my sons and our students to be protected from the enemy as well as themselves. What hit me???

Remove thy way far from her, and then come not nigh the door of her house. The noble and wise thing to do is not to be tempted and resist but to remove all possible temptations from yourself, as much as you can. To allow yourself undue temptations is to slow your walk down. Run hard and run fast without extra baggage.

Lest thou give thine honour unto others. You’ll never regain the respect of those around you. Once a man or woman is found in adultery, their life is characterized many times by that sin. Many never shake it.

and thy years unto the cruel. Your life for the many years that follow will be HARD years. Multiple marriages, bitter children, difficulties

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth. There will be no excess in your life. Visa will receive all the blessing that was meant for you! Your hard work won’t be for you but for people you don’t even know. Strangers.

And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed. You die without honor, full of regret, wishing you had it to do over again. But you don’t get to do it over again. Make decisions today based upon what you will have wished you would have done 10,000 years from now. In other words, 10,000 years from, as you look back on today’s decisions, what will you wished you would have done? MAKE THAT CHOICE!!!!

Oh God! Save us. Burn obedience and a passion for You into our hearts.

I was just reading Oswald Chambers a few mornings ago and he was talking about “spiritual selfishness.” What does that mean? It is simple…We always are looking for the face to face encounter when the clouds open up and the glory of God shines through and everything is great. What is wrong with that? Well, nothing in and of itself. The problem comes when we are not willing to go where the real fruit is grown - IN THE VALLEYS!

To not come down from the mountain top is to horde God’s blessings. We weren’t created for that. We were created to be a blessing to others. That blessing cannot come except we suffer and feel the pain of others. That cannot come until we “pick up our cross DAILY.” Bummer as it may be, that is where the fruit is grown.

So what’s the moral of this story? Live in God’s glory and go to mountain for His enlightening. But don’t forget that the mountain is not where lasting fruit takes place. Learn to embrace God in suffering for that is where real growth takes place. Ecclesiastes says Only by SUFFERING is the heart made better.

I want to take some time with those of you who are interested and share what the Bible teaches about tongues for today. I’m excited to share this information with you directly from God’s Word in order to help you develop a biblical construct on how to evaluate this confusing issue.

We are going to meet at my house on Tuesday, October 17 at 7:00 pm. Feel free to bring anyone you would like; if you have any questions, shoot me an emailThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . I would like to begin taking you deeper into the Word of God in order to solidify your foundation and help you furthur understand your position in Christ. Remember, understanding your position enables you to experience your possession in Christ. Hope to see you there!