As Christians in this world today, we WAY too often “follow the crowd” in what we place importance on and are interested in knowing about. The news and media of our day tell us the latest happenings and actions of the people they think are important such as movie stars, sports heroes, and musicians. And…
Author: Joshua Goodling
Forget The Past!
One of the things that quite often defeats Christians in their daily life is, they spend too much of their time focusing on their past life. This is especially true if they have a past in which they rebelled against God as a Christian, or if they lived what people would call a rebellious life…
Faith Is Critical
In Genesis 12, God speaks to Abraham and the Bible tells us, “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make…
Give Him Everything
Charles Cowman, who lived in the late 1800’s and was a missionary to Japan, wrote, “God cannot fulfill His richest promise to any of us until we have offered up to Him, in utter completeness of surrender, ourselves. Then He can do glorious things for and with our lives.” That is exactly why thousands of…
The Wrong Obsessions
I was at the hair cutters recently, and the lady who was cutting my hair said, “Uhm…that’s not good!” So I asked what wasn’t good? And she said, your hair is getting a little thin on the back of your head. I just shrugged and said “oh well.” And she looked shocked at my reaction,…
Do We REALLY Believe?
In Mark chapter 6, Jesus returns to his hometown to teach and preach the Gospel. However, what He found was that the people there did not believe He was truly the Messiah. Read what the first six verses tell us; “He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him….
Unquestioned Obedience
One of the first stories we read in the Bible in the Book of Genesis is the story about Noah and the ark. We read in Genesis chapter 6 that God was sick of the wickedness in the world, and He was going to destroy all living flesh. Yet, there was ONE person who obeyed…
A Blind Horse and A Goat
I saw a video recently on the PBS website about the odd relationships some animals have. In that documentary it told about how a deer and a golden retriever had become friends, how a tortoise and a duck had bonded, and how a cheetah and a dog had a friendly relationship. All of the stories…
Every Promise He Made Is True!
A little boy knelt by his bed to pray before he went to sleep. He prayed, “Dear God, please take care of my daddy and my mommy and my sister and my brother and my doggy and me. Oh, and please take care of yourself, God. If anything happens to you, we’re going to be…
Our Awesome God…
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8) What an awesome promise this is. God doesn’t force us to draw close to Him, but He does promise that if we take the first step and start seeking Him, He will draw near to us. In the second part of that…
God?
If you drive through almost any small town or large city in America today, you’re going to find numerous churches. Churches of varying denominations, but whom all claim to worship God. If you go to the movies or watch television, you’ll see movies like Bruce Almighty and others which in some form or another portray…
Jesus Loves Me
Most of us remember the song “Jesus Loves Me” that we used to sing in Sunday School as young children. If you’re not familiar with it, the words go like this: Jesus loves me! This I know, For the Bible tells me so; Little ones to Him belong; They are weak, but He is strong….
Garbage In Equals Garbage Out…
A mother was peeling vegetables for a salad when her daughter, who was home from college, casually mentioned she was going to a questionable movie that evening. The mother suddenly picked up a handful of garbage from the trash can and dumped it in the salad. “Mother!” said the shocked college girl, “Why did you…
Practice Praying
In 1921, Thomas Edison wrote, “We don’t know the millionth part of one per cent about anything. We don’t know what water is. We don’t know what light is. We don’t know what gravitation is. We don’t know what enables us to keep on our feet to stand up. We don’t know what electricity is….
A Transformation
One of the most amazing transformations in God’s creation is when a caterpillar spins itself into a silky cocoon. Inside of that cocoon, that caterpillar radically transforms. And when it emerges from the cocoon, what once was an ugly caterpillar is now a beautiful butterfly. Before it spins itself into that cocoon, it is a…
Kindness – Practice It!
An elderly man was hired to sweep streets in a small town many years ago. Once a week he came by with his brush, sweeping all of the dirt and trash that people had left behind. He was a very friendly man and a lady who lived on one of the streets got into the…
Is Your Heart Right? (Part Three)
From J. C. Ryle (1816 – 1900) 3. A heart of which the Bible contains many pictures I will now show you, in the last place, the right heart. It is a heart of which the Bible contains many pictures. I am going to try to place some of those pictures before you. On a…
Is Your Heart Right? (Part Two)
From J. C. Ryle (1816 – 1900) 2. What is a wrong heart like I will now show you, in the second place, the heart that is wrong in the sight of God. There are only two sorts of hearts, a right one and a wrong one. What is a wrong heart like? The wrong…
Is Your Heart Right? (Part One)
In his book about the importance of having the right heart before God, J C Ryle writes; “I make no excuse for asking the special attention of my readers, while I try to say a few things about the heart. The head is not the principal thing. You may know the whole truth as it…
Just Ignore It…
Paying taxes is not fun, but we all have to do it. Now there are those who don’t believe in paying taxes and so they just ignore the tax laws and don’t bother paying them, or find any way they can to get around the laws and think it doesn’t matter. And, they usually end…
What Do You Think About?
When I was in the hospital with cancer 43 years ago, the doctors told my parents I was going to die and that I had zero chances of survival. However, rather than just give up hope, my parents continued to pray for me and to have a positive attitude around me, which in turn helped…
How Firm Is Your Foundation?
Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:17-18, “…be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of…
Who Has Your Heart?
The Bible says in Matthew 15:8, “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.” As is the case today, so was it back in the days when Jesus lived on this earth. Many people claim to follow Him, they talk about…
Never Be Tired of Speaking About Jesus
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16) D. L. Moody was an evangelist who lived from February 5, 1837 – December 22, 1899. He founded the Moody Bible Institute in…
Advice from J. C. Ryle – Part Three
The following was written by John Charles Ryle (1816 – 1900) in his book “Thoughts for Young Men”. In this final part I want to share from J. C. Ryle, he reminds us of a VERY important truth that we many times don’t stop to think about. PART THREE: …………… QUOTED FROM RYLE …………… Resolve…
Advice from J. C. Ryle – Part Two
In today’s message, Ryle reminds us that it’s not enough to just say we’re going to stop doing this or that. No, we are human, we have this terrible thing called the flesh, and if we’re not careful – we’ll soon find ourselves right back in the middle of those little sins. Please carefully read…
Advice from J. C. Ryle – Part One
The following was written by John Charles Ryle (1816 – 1900) in his book “Thoughts for Young Men”. It will do us well to carefully read over and think on the advice he gives. Few people in today’s world write and preach like J. C. Ryle and others did. PART ONE: …………… QUOTED FROM RYLE…
Is Your Light Shining?
James Marshall was a carpenter and sawmill operator in California. On January 24, 1848, while working on the mill and inspecting the channel where water flowed past it, he noticed some shiny flecks in the bed of the channel. Those tiny flecks turned out to be pure gold. Upon discovering the gold James Marshall gathered…
Possessions
In Matthew chapter 10, Jesus was instructing His twelve disciples about how they should go about their work. One of the things some people puzzle over is his instructions in verses 9 and 10, “Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, or a bag for your journey, or even two…
Help Lord!
In 2 Chronicles, we read the story of how Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came to fight against Jerusalem. Hezekiah was king of Jerusalem at that time, and the Bible tells us that He spoke to the people and told them, “Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be dismayed because of the king…