The Spirit-Filled Life of Jesus Christ
Pastor Mark shares a message with us taught at James River Church titled “The Spirit-Filled Life of Jesus Christ.”
Colossians 3:18 commands husbands to be loving, not harsh, with their wives.
Think of your relationship like a bank account: every word of love and encouragement is a deposit. Every shout, harsh word or criticism is a withdrawal.
Some husbands run out of credit and don’t even realize it. So watch my video to find out 10 ways husbands can be harsh to their wives – and how to avoid those traps.
Got a question you’d like me to answer? Send it to [email protected] today!
How to guard the physical well being of your child with everything from a safe environment to a good diet so that they have physical health and strength.
How to keep your mind sharp as a parent, and how to educate your child so that they are mentally able to make wise decisions.
How to have a soul-saving and life-changing relationship with God and help your child to tend to their own soul so that they spiritually mature.
We live and minister in Scottsdale, Arizona. It’s a beautiful dry desert that is, for most of the year, barren with red clay dirt and green cactus as far as the eye can see. But, everything changes during monsoon season. When the monsoons hit, the sky opens up and rain comes down in a flood … Read more
Loving Emotionally with All Your Heart – How to have your right heart as a parent, and get to your child’s heart so that they live from an emotionally healthy heart.
If someone asked you “what is the most important thing that someone could possibly do,” what would your answer be?
Jesus’ answer in Mark 12:30 is “love…God.”
Love is one of the most important words in the Bible and appears roughly eight hundred times in the Old and New Testaments. In our culture, though, it is one of the most misunderstood and misused words.
Simply put, when the Bible says that God is love, it means that He is relational. God wants a relationship with you. This is why He speaks to us through Scripture and listens to us through prayer. Furthermore, God made us like Him, in a limited sense, to be in loving relationship with Him and others, starting with what Jesus calls our “neighbor.” Therefore, our loving relationships are supposed to start at home with our family members who sleep in the rooms next to ours.
Here’s how God explains it in Genesis 1:26, “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’ ” Did you catch the “our” language? Again, this is the Bible’s way of letting us know about the Trinity, that there is “one” God made up of the three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. It’s important to remember that our God is ALL ABOUT loving relationships. This is not merely what God does, this is how God is!
Our God is a loving and relational God, and He made us to be loving and relational people. We are literally handmade and hardwired for loving relationships. We are not supposed to live life alone. In fact, while the world was still perfect and before sin occurred, God said it was “not good” for us to be “alone” in Genesis 2:18. Today, in our sin infected and corrupted world, our need for loving relationship is even greater.
If you have ever flown on an airplane, you have likely heard the safety speech that is given at the beginning of the flight. We are told that in case of an emergency oxygen masks will drop. The attendant tells us to put our own mask on first before we put the mask on a child with us. This allows us to be healthy and alert when caring for the child.
Life is like a flight. Jesus is our captain. Our relationship with Him is our proverbial oxygen mask. On Jesus Airlines, when the storms hit and lightning strikes, there will be times of turbulence until we land in His Kingdom. Both parents and children need to have their masks on so they can stay alive and alert. In order for this to happen, parents (and other caregivers) have to put their mask on first. If we are not in a healthy, life-sustaining relationship with God where the Holy Spirit puts His life-giving nourishment into our soul, then we will not be able to care for the child sitting on the flight next to us. This is what Jesus means in Mark 12:28–31 saying that we need to first “love God” and then second “love our neighbor.”
How is your Bible reading? How is your prayer life? How is your relationship with God? How can you improve your relationship with God? What are some practical things you can do this week to help your child’s relationship with God?
God is a Father who loves parents and children, and wants to help them to love Him and each other because love is the entire point of parenting.
With more songs sung to Him and books written regarding Him than anyone else who has ever lived, Jesus is the most admired man in all of history. But, God wants us to not only admire the life of Jesus, but also experience the same source of life-giving power that He did. The empowerment of … Read more
“…Be filled with the Spirit.” Ephesians 5:18 Jesus grew from infancy to adulthood, lived among a family, worked a job, ate meals, increased His knowledge through learning, told jokes, attended funerals, had male and female friends, celebrated holidays, went to parties, loved His mom, felt the pain of betrayal and lies told about Him, and … Read more
One day, as I was walking through a grocery store, I felt like my mind was going to explode. It was around the Christmas season, and over the store speakers the old holiday favorite “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” was playing. As people were trying to figure out which cereal to put in their cart, which … Read more