For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. – Romans 3:23 NKJV. Before we can have salvation, we must first realize our need for a Savior. Before we can be forgiven of our sins, we must first realize that we have sinned. One of my...

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triump in Christ, and through us diffuses the frangrance of His knowledge in every place. – 2 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV. The NIV puts 2 Corinthians 2:14 as: But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us...

In 1991 at a pastor’s conference, I had the opportunity to hear an elderly evangelist by the name of Oakley. I believe it was W. B. Oakley. He told of his salvation and call at the late age of 36. He was a farmer and had not even finished...

Jesus says in Matthew 18:19, “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” In my first pastorate revival appeared to have come after...

How does God speak to us? Of course, He speaks to us through His Word, the Bible. But is God still able to communicate with us today in any other way? In 1 Kings 19:12 the Bible tells us about God’s communication with the prophet Elijah, “And after the earthquake a fire;...

His name, let’s call him, AJ. AJ was on probation sitting in my office. If he had been in church you might have thought that he was the preacher’s son or the deacon’s son. Or you might have thought AJ would be delivering the morning sermon. AJ was clean cut,...

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. – 2 Corinthians 5:17. “It’s a boy!!” Yesterday our first grandchild was born (Madison Cael Wrather, 8 lbs., 12 and 1/2 ozs., 22 inches). I marveled again...

Think of the lame man in Acts chapter 3 who was laid at the gate Beautiful so he could beg. He was just begging for alms and he just wanted to survive. “Just give me some crumbs,” he was most likely crying out to the people that passed. He had been doing this...

In Galatians 5:22-23 we are told, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance….” The NIV translates gentleness as kindness. Kindness can be a shocking thing when you are expecting the opposite. Before I was a pastor I was a parole officer. My job was to supervise people...

“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness – Isaiah 41:10. Going to a dentist’s office is usually not something...