There’s a scene in Monty Python where castle workers are bringing out the plague dead. (It’s funny, trust me.) One man is sick and protests. “I’m not dead yet!” “Oh, stop being such a baby!” Christians could stand to here the same thing. So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.Then we will no longer be…

God often tells His people to leave the place they are living. Now, I hope to live in Wrightwood the rest of my life. But the command is not only to leave physical places – it is to leave old ways. Remember two things: 1) that we are pilgrims in this land, and 2) God never leaves us. Command to Physically Leave (Gen 12:1) The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.  (Gen. 31:13) [God said to Jacob] “I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow…

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas traveled to Philippi in Macedonia. Paul expelled the fortune-telling spirit in a slave girl and her owners raised the crowds against them. The two were stripped badly flogged and imprisoned. That night a huge earthquake opened all the prison doors and loosened the chains on the prisoners’ feet. The Roman jailer was about to fall on his sword when Paul yelled that they were all still there. The jailer and his family ended up accepting Christ that night! The same incredible power that loosed Paul and Silas is available to you today. And look: once released they didn’t escape. They could have if that’s…