Read 'n Run

Opportunities

“Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.” – Mark 1:16-2 » More Info «

Grace

When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, did He forgive us of all our sins, the sins of the past and future? Is His grace sufficient? I think He has. I firmly believe that Jesus’ blood has covered all my sins, but there seems to be this idea that is plaguing us believers. This plague destroys the very reason Jesus came to earth. This plague ultimately shows we don’t fully believe that Jesus’ death on the cross was sufficient enough. What is this plague? Well, it is a simple thought. We believe that once we have accepted Jesus that our sins have been washed away, but what we think next is the dangerous part. Now that I am saved, I need to work hard to get out of the pit that I am in. We believe we have been made new, but that we are still stuck with the past holding us down. This past will cause us to sin and make us turn to sin again. We believe that we have to shake our selves free from it. It seems innocent, and that it would be something we would want to do, but it comes down to “I” need to shake myself free. » More Info «

Eternal Joy

I am sure you have heard this analogy before, but I will reiterate it in case you haven’t. Let’s just say you had $86,400 in your bank account. If someone stole $10 from you, would you get angry? Would this stolen $10 make you want to throw away the other $86,390? I don’t think anyone would get that upset that they would throw away the rest of their money. This $10 is so minuscule compared to the other $86,390 that we probably wouldn’t notice much. The problem though is this happens to us almost every day. Someone takes the $10 from us, and we get so angry that we throw the rest of the money away. Now, I am not talking about money at this point; I am talking about seconds. A day consists of 86,400 seconds. If someone manages to ruin 10 seconds of our day, we tend to let it dictate our attitudes for the rest of the day. Sometimes it could be for a couple of days. Essentially, they have robbed us of 10 seconds of joy and we decide to throw the other 86,390 seconds of joy we could have away. Why do we do this? Why can something this small cause us to lose our joy? Let’s take a more in-depth look as to where our joy comes from. » More Info «

The Greatest Gift

The world was waiting for the promised gift from God, a gift that would change the world permanently. This gift is wrapped in love. Love that is so ridiculously scandalous that it would save us all. This is the greatest gift. This is Jesus. I am sure it was a very quiet night. Heaven was filled with anticipation, and the angels were on the edge of their seats, waiting, watching to see how it would all go down. Born in a manger, wrapped in swaddles clothes, God gave us the best gift we could ever receive. Our King, giving up His heavenly throne, came to earth and lived an extraordinary life in an ordinary body. Flesh and bones, He came to save us. He came to set us free from our bondage of sin. He came to die for us. » More Info «

Passionate Prayer

We live in a culture of instant gratification. We want everything now, and if we can’t get it immediately, we get upset. With 2-day shipping on everything and free WiFi on every corner, we can get whatever we want whenever we want. I think this has ruined our relationship with Jesus. We start to think of God as a vending machine. If we insert two prayer tokens, we will get what we want. When we don’t get what we asked for immediately, we get mad. God isn’t a gene in a bottle. He isn’t a father who spoils us with the things we want. He spoils us with the things we need. He gives us the things we need when we need them, not when we want them. » More Info «

Impossible Love

What is Love? We define it as a strong affection for one another. This is true, but I don’t think this definition truly explains what love actually is. This definition is something that we have come up with that fits inside what we are capable of expressing. True love is so much more than a strong affection for someone. True love is what we call unconditional love. We can’t express true love. We have lowered its standards and made a new definition that exceeds what we can express. Because of this, we only try to attain the level of strong affection and never try to love truly, unconditionally. » More Info «

My Pride or Their Salvation

Right before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He told us, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16:15) How often do we do this outside of a church event where the purpose is to preach the Gospel? Do you proclaim the Gospel wherever you go? I know it is not a part of my daily routine. It is not a natural gut reaction to share the Gospel with everyone I see. Sharing the Gospel only seems to happen when I think about it or plan it. This shouldn’t be the case though. We should be so convicted by the grace of God that we want to scream it from our rooftops. So why isn’t this happening? » More Info «

Church

When we think of church, we think of the building we go to on Sunday morning to sing worship songs and listen to a sermon. This is a typical definition of what church is. There is another way of defining the church. Some people would define church as a body of believers coming together for Jesus. Whether it is in worship, fellowship, serving, or study, this is what church is. Church reaches far beyond the four walls of our buildings, but we tend to limit church to the building. How can we expand beyond the four walls of our building and reach those in need just outside the doors? » More Info «