This message was preached at the Annual Conference for the Association of Independent Methodists (AIM) in Dacatur, AL on Thursday, June 25, 2020.
True freedom is not the ability to freely pursue happiness as we each define it. Freedom is the ability to break free from the crooked, perverse, self-centered human nature and live entirely for God.
I’m hard-pressed to think of a more unpleasant, unnatural, and un-human place to be than in the belly of a fish. This is the last place God ever intended his image-bearers to be. This is where Jonah ended up, however, when he simply refused to...
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. — Galatians 1:10 In this era of Social Media, public displays of virtual signaling and moral...
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. — 1 Samuel 16:13 The first two times the word “oil” appears in Scripture, it symbolizes...
The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by...
And why did He call the grace of the Spirit water? Because by water all things subsist; because water brings forth grass and living things; because the water of the showers comes down from heaven — Cyril of Jerusalem Water is one of the most...
And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. — Matthew 3:16 The Holy Spirit’s descent upon Jesus as he’s coming...
Living the Christian life without the Holy Spirit is like having the wind knocked out of you: painful and scary. Our spiritual life and health are entirely dependent on a constant, unwavering dependence on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, like...