Bible verses:

“Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 3:2

Jesus says we are to be humble. Humble, first of all, before God. That is the way Jesus began His ministry. He began by teaching humility. Take a look in the Gospels, the first thing that Jesus preaches is this, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  Jesus says, “Repent. Turn back to God. Be humble before God.” He is not being mean, nor is He simply beating an old drum. He is speaking divine truth. All people are called to return to Him, to come back to God, to be humble before God. But also to be humble before one another, to understand that none of us can stand before a holy God and brag about what we have accomplished. Instead all of us are invited to yield our lives to Him and receive what He has to offer to us. 

He calls us into a relationship with Himself. Isn’t that precious that the Living God considers you and me so important that He wants to spend time with us? Do you realize what an honor that is that God desires to be in that kind of relationship with you and with me? That’s what Jesus offers and that’s what He is calling us to. That kind of life is no longer self-centered. It’s God centered. It is a good way to live, to realize that God is in the details of my life, that God is more than just the one I’m going to meet at the end of days. God is the one who is with me in every moment of my life, and He is the One who has loved me so much that He was willing to offer up His only Son as the payment for my rebellion so that I might receive the daily joy of living in a relationship with Him and getting to know Him better.

What God desires is people who live in a relationship with Him and who are used by Him to impact others and to change the world.  He calls us to “let our light so shine,” as He puts it, that others may see our behavior and our actions and give glory to God. That kind of behavior is not stuck up religion, that kind of behavior is gracious, Christ-centered living. That kind of behavior leaves a lasting legacy.

Prayer: Ask the Lord to help you work diligently at leaving a lasting legacy, one that reflects gracious, Christ-centered living. Pray for a renewed relationship with Jesus and share your desire with Him to continue to grow in knowing Him better. Pray for family members, friends, neighbors and others that they might also experience a renewed relationship with Jesus. Ask Him to make you a shining Light that others may come to know Him also. Pray for a renewed yearning in America to return to God, that America would once again become a Shining Light for Jesus, and a Beacon in the darkness.

By Pastor Chris Dodge

Bible text:

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

The Scriptures say we are not to be judgmental but they do call us to judge the difference between right and wrong, between truth and a lie, between evil and good, between falsehood and what is genuine and pure and holy.

In our culture today, here in America, we have set aside 2000 years of biblical values in an instant of time. We have basically said God no longer sets those guidelines. “How dare He try to tell me about my sex life? How dare He try to establish marriage and say it’s got to be one way. How dare He say that we’ve got to do this, and be kind and forgiving? We ought to be able to vent our spleen whenever we want.” And the result is pride. Pride because we become the measure of what is “right.”

If the standard of judgment is human behavior than any one of us can look at any other human being and find areas where we can say, “Oh, I’m better than so-and-so.” But the Bible makes it very clear the standard of judgment is not human attitudes. The standard of judgment is God’s holiness, and on that standard every one of us have fallen. There is not a single one of us here or anywhere in the world who can look at ourselves and say, “What a good person I am. It’s no wonder God loves me.” What does the Bible tell us? It says, “While we were still sinners. He loved us and sent His Son to die for us.” There is no pride in that. It reminds us it is only by God’s grace and mercy that we are brought into a living relationship with the living God, and that grace and mercy is available to ALL.

Jesus warns us to be careful because it is easy to let go of the commands of God and get caught up with the world’s view of things. Instead He encourages us to take Him and His Word seriously, and allow Him, His Word, and His Spirit to transform and renew our lives. And today, right now, He yearns to restore and renew, to give hope and life to all who seek His truth.

Prayer: Spend time praying humbly for God to forgive the sins of America. Ask Him to bring His Light and Truth to those lost in darkness, to those believing lies.  Ask God to transform and renew our lives making us bold witnesses who stand up lovingly and kindly for His truth. Pray for restoration of faith for the wayward and awakening for those who are believing the views of the world. Pray for God to show them the way to Him through Jesus, His Son.

By Pastor Chris Dodge

Bible verse:

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  John 8:12 (NIV)

Today in America we are facing a spiritual crisis because a growing number of people in the younger generations have not heard the message of Jesus. Because of so many of the abuses of the Christian world many of them are turned off totally to the things of God. They have never been able to see the incredible power of God to change an individual’s life through the faith in Christ Jesus that the Holy Spirit brings.

If ever there were a time when the people of God needed to boldly proclaim the truth, this is the time.

If ever there were a time when we needed supernatural help, this is the time.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, You see the spiritual crisis we are in. Break into the hearts of those who do not know You. Make those of us who do know You, strong and bold.  Make us willing to show and to speak the Light of Jesus into situations, and to everyone we meet. Amen.

By Pastor Chris Dodge

Bible verses:

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.’ I John 5:13

“But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.” I Thessalonians 5:8

We are going through some tough times right now. It’s easy to feel rather hopeless with all the uncertainty about what lies ahead, but God gives us hope. And that hope is eternal life through Jesus, His Son. That is no phony promise. When you and I understand that we have a certain future that is sealed by the resurrection of Jesus, that gives us a blessed assurance and it gives us strength to face each day.

Hope is like a helmet on our heads, the helmet of salvation. It protects our minds because the enemy just loves to go after our minds, and he loves to say lies to discourage us. The hope of salvation not only gives protection from the attacks of the enemy, but it encourages us to live for God. Because we know that our future is sure, and that this life, as short as it may be, is not all there is and that encourages and strengthens us. Hope gives us the desire to live for God and to share the magnitude of His love with others and bring the message of Hope to the hopeless.

Prayer: Pray for those feeling hopeless. Pray for opportunities to share the Message of Hope found in Jesus. Pray that in our nation, believers would rise up to bring hope and light into the hopelessness and darkness.

By Pastor Chris Dodge

Bible verses: 

Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Peace refers to everything being right and in harmony with God. It speaks about a comfort and an assurance that transforms life. The Reader’s Digest condensed version of what the apostle Paul is saying in Romans 5:1-2 is that until you have peace with God, you will never have the peace of God. Until you are at peace with the living God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ you will never experience the genuine peace of God that passes all human understanding. It’s just that simple. The peace that God gives, comes through the cross of the Lord Jesus. It comes from knowing Him as Savior.

In our house we’ve had this little framed picture hanging up in our dining room for more than three decades. It has these words from Philippians 4:6, “Don’t worry about anything, pray about everything.” If we translate Paul’s original writing from its original Greek, it reads like this, “Don’t keep on worrying.” You don’t have to live this way anymore. As an act of faith set aside worry, as an act of faith stop worrying, and replace worry and anxiety with something far far better. And that something is prayer.

Prayer is talking to God. He says to us, “Don’t keep on worrying, instead in every situation pray.” In other words, “Talk to Me. Just bring your concerns to Me.” You can be perfectly open and honest with Him, you don’t have to hold back. When we by faith know the peace that God gives, He brings peace into our very souls as we converse with Him.

Philippians 4:7 says, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.” Don’t you love that? The original text basically says the following, “He will stand guard over your emotions, your feelings, your concerns, your thoughts, your everything.” He gives peace that guards us and protects us so that no matter what may be going on in your life today, no matter what is going on in the world, He is saying it clearly, “Don’t continue worrying, replace it with prayer, and just watch what I will do.” Because through faith in Jesus we are at peace with God, and we can come to Him and know that He will hear our prayers. He will minister to us even in the most difficult of times. Come to Him and watch what He can do, better yet, come to Him watch what He WILL do!

Prayer: Share your heart with the Lord, today. Lay your concerns and worries at His feet and trust Him to bring you His deep abiding peace. Pray for peace for America, pray that He will bring America into harmony with His heart by touching the hearts of His people. Pray that He will help us share peace, by sharing our faith in Christ.

By Pastor Chris Dodge

Bible Text: Ephesians 3:16-20

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

What have we done in the last 40 years? We have driven God out of our schools. We have removed His commandments from our courts. We have taken the mention of His name out of the public square. We have banned Him from our morals. We have engaged in the worship of Moloch, the idol of the old testament era, and the people of Israel. Moloch, before whom people sacrificed their children. In the last 40 years, I have watched as we have sacrificed over 50 million of our children. The Israelites killed thousands, we’ve killed millions. And we boast about it. We have seen in our time how a nation can turn its back on what is true and abandon that which our ancestors paid for with their lives. We have seen a land that has rewritten the law of God even as we’ve rewritten our constitution. We have changed what for millennia God has decreed as one man, one woman committed together for life. And, we say we have the right to rewrite that. Can anyone do those things without consequences? There will be a day of reckoning. It will come. And at that point it’s very easy for us to get up on our high horses and say, ‘Amen, brother you preach it, Chris. At least the church is moving in the way God would have us move!”

But, here’s what I’ve seen in the last 40 years in the church. I’ve watched mainline Christianity abandon the truths of the Bible and simply adopt self-help and entertainment as their gods. We have institutionalized the Holy Spirit, and I use that word, that verb, in the very real sense of the term. We have institutionalized Him, we have put Him away, and we have said, “Well, He comes to you when you get baptized, now sit back and enjoy your life and don’t think about this anymore.” And God says, “Unless you live by the Spirit you are living in the flesh. Unless you walk in the Spirit, you are walking in the flesh. Unless you walk in the Spirit, you do not know the Living God, and you do not know His Messiah.” Because you are worshiping a false God, two-thirds of the Trinity at best, one-third at worst, and none in many instances. Is God pleased? What is He saying? His heart is breaking, and He’s calling His people back to Him!

God says, “Humble yourselves before Me.” We desperately need what only He can give. What God desires for you and me is not comfortable religion, not a little bit of Jesus flavoring on our lives so we can go back to doing what we please. God desires that we know Him, that we experience a living relationship with Him, that we understand the depth of His love, a love so great that He did not spare His son. God cares for you and for me so desperately that the Lord Jesus Christ was willing to experience hell on a cross so that we might never have to fear the judgment. If God paid that price, what is our response to be? Certainly not half-hearted nodding of the heads, but rather wholehearted commitment of the life, of the heart, of the soul. God is a good, merciful, and gracious God, but He will not be trifled with. He’s calling His people to come back to Him, to take seriously what He has done and what He desires to do.

Prayer: Have mercy on us Father! You have stood by as America has abandoned the truths of the Bible, as the church as abandoned Your truth and I, too, have done this. Lord, I ask for forgiveness for my part in this. I have not always stood strong for you, forgive the church and forgive America. Give me strength to walk in Your will, give the church that same strength, that America would once again walk in Your way, and in Your will. Amen

By Pastor Chris Dodge