An Honest Judge
In this study, Pastor Ricley teaches on Psalms 11-15 and then he’s asked to explain 1 John 5:14-21. These verses all work together to establish that it’s only God who knows a man’s heart and He will always do what is right. We don’t need to understand, we just need to rest in His will in any given situation.
Truth About Condemnation
If we sin, we feel condemnation. The fruit of the knowledge of good and evil makes us want to run and hide from God. In truth, condemnation was God-given to guide us – to repentance, to prayer, to comfort, to peace and to motivate us to get it right the next time. God has given us everything we need to empower us to walk uprightly before Him.
We’ve Got The Power
The church has forgotten that in the covenant is the Tree of Life. This tree isn’t for us because as believers we will never die. The Tree is for those around us who are dying in their sins. When we were washed in the blood, there was enough blood to cover all our sins for our entire life with some left over to give away. The church needs to return to fearing God, living…
Hold to the Light
In John 12 Jesus was prophesying about the things to come and the darkness that was going to descend when He was crucified. There was no way the people were going to understand His words in their carnal mind, but He was instructing them to hold on in faith to who they believed Him to be. If they believed He was the Messiah, that was all they needed and all that was ahead…
Writing Our Own Psalms
Not every song (Psalm) that David wrote was joyous. Some of his Psalms simply conveyed the message that God was there, carrying him through his pain and confusion. God does not despise what we go through and the honesty of our feelings. We learn to write our own Psalms of joy and of sorrow curled up in the reality and the sovereignty of a God who is always there, even…
Set Yourself in the Story
We all have a tendency to murmur and complain about the things that go on in our lives. If we read the Word with the understanding that the story is about us and about God’s plan of victory for our lives, we would follow the pattern Jesus set out for us to follow. Jesus’ story was foretold in the Bible and He governed His life by what the Word said, even knowing that…
Civil War
After Solomon’s death, God rent the kingdom from Rehoboam’s hands as He had told Solomon He would do, and He made Jeroboam King of Israel. There was a physical civil war between the 2 kingdoms and there was a spiritual civil war in Jeroboam’s heart as he had to choose between the promises God had made to keep him with the voices that told him that the people would return…
Identity Crisis
All too often the church identifies with the God who judges. We read the Word and we identify with the ungodly and expect wrath to be poured out on us. It’s time for the church to identify with the God of victory, the Author and Finisher of Our Faith, the God who comforts. It’s time for the church to remember that we are His offspring, born of Champion seed and that we…
Numbering Our Days
The events that are going on around us and the demands on our time press us to choose between the material world we live in and the realities of eternal choices. God is bringing all of our hearts into a place of decision about what we want to do with Him. When we assign a number to our days we maintain a sense of where we are on the timeline and a motivation to hold to…
Representation of God
We either represent or misrepresent Christ in the lives we live out in front of others every day. Sin separates us from the very power that makes us sons. Jesus is our example of perfect obedience – obedience so perfect He could enter the Pool of Bethesda and heal only one person when everyone in there had to be crying out for His touch. We have the power to become sons -…