“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil 4:7 (NIV) Choose to replace your anxious thoughts with intentional prayer. Your focus will shift from the gravity of your circumstances to the enormity of God’s power. You will gain God’s perspective on the obstacles […]
Author: Stephen Trammell
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Phil 4:6 (NIV) Anxiety is the great distraction. All of your emotional energy is diverted to fuel the vast demands anxiety produces. Incessant worry evaporates the tranquil waters of peace and contentment. Instead of living […]
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Reality of Hospitality
“When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come and stay at my house.’ And she persuaded us.” Acts 16:15 (NIV) Have you ever been to someone’s house and you felt right at home? After being […]
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Here Am I
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” Isaiah 6:8 (NIV) Isaiah had a life changing experience. He looked up and saw the Lord in all of His holiness. Isaiah looked inward and recognized his own sinfulness in light of […]
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Shadow of His Wings
“Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.” Psalm 57:1 (NIV) Where do you turn when you need refuge? The world offers many choices. You can lose yourself in the stream […]
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Accentuating God’s Peace
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27 (NIV) The Holy Spirit lives in you to accentuate the experience of God’s peace. Happiness is based on happenstance. If the […]
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Illuminating God’s Will
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known […]
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Validating Truth
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14:26 (NIV) The Holy Spirit lives in you to validate the truth of God’s word. Life in our fast-paced culture can get noisy at […]
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Resident Counselor
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” John 14:16-17 (NIV) Have you ever needed […]
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (NIV) Have you ever questioned your own value and worth? That’s a normal part of life. Everyone wants to feel valued and valuable. God established your value by taking the initiative to rescue you […]
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Greatest Possession
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NIV) God created you for eternity. You have a birth date that you celebrate and calculate annually. You know exactly how long you have been breathing oxygen […]
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Greatest Exclusion
“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:28 (NIV) God loves you so much that He initiated a love relationship with you. Before you were formed in your mother’s womb, God knew you (Jer. 1:5). Long before you knew anything about God […]
“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 (NIV) Life can […]
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Greatest Invitation
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20 (NIV) Of all the invitations you will receive in a lifetime, there is no invitation that comes close to the significance and […]
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Greatest Generosity
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” 1 John 3:1 (NIV) God’s generosity flows out of His love for humanity. Even though […]
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NIV) God so loved the world. John used world (Greek: kosmos) 78 times in his Gospel and 24 times in his letters. The world refers to the […]
“And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:8 (NIV) What comes to mind when you think of the concept of sacrifice? I immediately think of the soldier fighting on foreign soil to preserve our freedom. I think of the single […]
“But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:31 (NIV) God never intended for you to live the Christian life in your own strength. Joining God in His activity requires […]
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Time for a Pit Stop
“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Ex 20:11 (NIV) Do you have room in your life for rest? Of course not! You have […]
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Freedom in Christ
“When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.’” John 11:43-44 (NIV) Death could not prevent Jesus from […]
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In the Yoke
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Mt. 11:28-30 (NIV) Jesus […]
“Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” Prov 4:26-27 (NIV) Have you ever peaked into the rear view mirror of life and wondered, “Why did I choose that path?” Perhaps you made a decision to […]
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Advise Your Eyes
“Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you.” Prov 4:25 (NIV) Eyesight is an amazing feature of the human body. God’s creation throughout the earth is awesome to behold whether taking in the sight of the blue sky in the day or the star filled sky at night or observing a […]
“Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.” Prov 4:24 (NIV) Have you ever said something that you wish you could retrieve? We have all been there. If only we could have thought about what we were going to say before we said it. Let’s use the word THINK as […]
“Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.” Heb 9:3-4 (NIV) Being “in Christ” changes everything. Your position […]
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Tabernacle Prayer: The Curtain
“Make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim worked into it by a skilled craftsman. Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases. Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the Testimony […]
“Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense. It is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high–its horns of one piece with it. Overlay the top and all the sides and the horns with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it…Put the altar in front […]
“Make a lampstand of pure gold and hammer it out, base and shaft; its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms shall be of one piece with it…Then make its seven lamps and set them up on it so that they light the space in front of it. Its wick trimmers and trays are to be of […]
“Make a table of acacia wood–two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold molding around it…Put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before me at all times.” Ex 25:23-24, 30 (NIV) Where do you go for nourishment? […]
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it.’” Ex 30:17-18 (NIV) The second step to intimacy with God involves “the basin of water” found in the Old Testament Tabernacle. We are touring the furnishings […]