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Beach Devotion #1 While running at the beach this morning, I saw this pile of broken and discarded beach chairs and tents. Behind the fence was an even greater pile. The hopeful handyman in me stopped to see which ones were salvageable. Some would be easily repaired with a new bolt. Some would be more…
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“Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?Take it to the Lord in prayer;In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,Thou wilt find a solace there.” Ever lost a true friend? You know the kind with whom you’ve shared intimate thoughts and feelings. Ones you’ve trusted. Ones who know you in and out and have been through…
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Jesus knows what it’s like to lose a daddy. Somewhere between twelve years old (Luke 2:41-50) and the start of His ministry at about age thirty (John 2:1-12), Jesus’ daddy died. We’re not exactly sure when it happened, but Joseph is not mentioned anywhere in scripture during or after Jesus’ first miracle. In fact, when…
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Sometimes life reaches a point when hurt, pain, and chaos spiral beyond our control. Ever been there? Maybe you’re there right now? During these times, the temptation is to believe the deception that hope, relief, and peace are things of the past. But that is a lie! God is present, even in trouble. Now there’s…
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How do we overcome the sin of racism? The ultimate answer is Jesus. He alone makes two become one (Matthew 19:6) and is the peace that tears down the dividing wall of hostility between races (Ephesians 2:14). The gospel of Jesus Christ is the great equalizer. It places everyone, regardless of race, social status, and…
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I remember the first time I dunked a basketball. I was in the 7th grade and I thought I was something special. Trouble was, it wasn’t on a 10′ regulation height basketball goal. I had lowered the goal at a friend’s house to about 8.5′. You would have thought I was Michael Jordan that day. …
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Teenage drivers are not “somebody else’s kid” anymore, they are ours. Well, one of them is ours. Man, they grow up fast. My oldest daughter Kylee had been driving incident-free for almost a whole three weeks by herself when the inevitable happened. She backed into my truck in our driveway. Thankfully, there was only a…
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Some other important qualities we see in Acts 6 are not found in the deacons themselves, but in those choosing them. If you’re going to choose the right people for deaconship, you have to have the right people making those choices. The disciples in the church were given the task of choosing deacons upon which…
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“Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8). Grace and power are two seemingly diametrically opposed qualities. However, in order for each to work properly, the other is necessary. These two essential traits for deacons are married, bringing richness and fullness to one another. …
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Deacons must be full of faith! Acts 6:5 says, “This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith…” Did you catch that? Stephen was full of faith before he was chosen to be a deacon. Being full of faith is a prerequisite for being considered to be a deacon! Without faith,…
stephen R Harrison 