Walk With Darrell

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV) 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Life is a delicate balancing act, of walking a fine line of being over-committed with so many things that seem important. It is easy to fall prey to pride when you end up trying to do too much. It is also easy t

As believers, we are not exempt from having to deal with bitterness. If we don’t deal with bitterness in our lives, it can become a poison that erodes our optimism, shatter our joy, and kills our ability to love others. A bitter person goes through life with a heart that doesn’t function fully. It can spill out into our relationships, which leads to regret, pain, grief, hatred, spite, and spiritual poverty. God doesn’t intend for us to live with bitterness. When bitterness a

My boys hardly ever called me at work to chat; however, occasionally I would get a phone call at work from one of my sons. On the other end of the line I would hear, “dad, do you have a minute?” I knew that one of my sons needed to talk with dad. Many times, it was to bounce something that was on their mind off dad to see what I thought. This is just part of being a dad. Sometimes it just helps to talk to dad. I occasionally still get a phone call. It is not only good to t

How will our faith be tested this week? If you are in a test of faith right now, rejoice – the Lord has His hand on you! This test is not going to destroy you! You are either going to grow, get stronger and increase in the anointing, or the Lord will provide a way of safe escape. Our faith is being tested by God and it probably going to happen soon. Some of my tests I have failed, but no worry, God allowed me to retake my test. God has a purpose in testing our faith and James

Terri and I married while we were in the Navy. So, as sailors we did not have a lot of money for expensive gifts. On our first wedding anniversary I bought Terri some small gifts. One gift I bought for Terri she still has and uses to this day. It is a key chain with a heart on it and a saying that reads, “A Child of The King”. It is special that we are going on over 44 years of marriage, and she still holds that key chain as a special gift. The words are special, and she hold

Colossians 3:2 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Does it seem like every day is a battle on whether or not you experience the joy that God intended for your life? We often fight with attitudes that can steal our joy. Do you struggle with thoughts that are bitter or pessimistic? If we are all honest there are some things, we deal with in our lives that trigger the wrong attitude. A couple of examples, have you ever come across anyone who is a different p

Time is a precious commodity in our lives. It seems like we are always scrambling to get things done in our busy lives. As you go through the different phases of life there are different things that eat up our time. I can remember when our kids were elementary school age and my wife, Terri was going to nursing school, mornings were hectic. Everyone that has a family know exactly what I am talking about. Then as we developed our careers, we were always in a rush to get to work

Franklin Graham writes,” we can have full confidence in God’s promises because we can have faith in His character”. God has given us a lot of promises in His Word. Some of God’s promises were for individuals or nations. For example, God made Abraham a promise that Sarah would have a son, but we cannot presume that He will do the same for us. However, many promises are for us to claim when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. There is a gospel song, I have sung in church ma

This has been a tough week for close friends and family. I have had two friends that have lost family members this past week and I have lost relatives in the past. I have felt the hurt they are going through, and I also know the hurt does go away. There will still be tears, but they knew their loved ones went home to be with the Lord. I also have multiple friends that are dealing with health issues. Believers in the early church were instructed to seek prayer from their lea

Luke 11:28 28 He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Obedience is the bottom line in the Christian life. When we decide as Christians to be obedient to God then expect a challenge. Satan doesn’t want us to follow God, so he will offer temptations to divert us and weaken our resolve. This is the spiritual warfare we are in every day of our life. I heard in a study that partial obedience is disobedience. As we start the new year let us stri

1 Thessalonians 5:18 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do we have a tendency not to thank God for the good things He has given us? In our hectic lives, it is easy for us to not make time to give God thanks for all He has done. If we look at our lives and start counting our blessings, we are amazed at how we are so blessed. Erwin Lutzer said, “A Christian who walks by faith accepts all circumstances from God. He thanks God whe

Isaiah 7:9b “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” How do we define Success? Is success defined by how much material things we have accumulated? Our worldly culture puts value on fame, living in luxury, good looks, having enough money to live a life of opulence. There is a difference between how the world defines success and what the Bible tells us. Jesus was considered unimpressive by the world’s standards. Born from a humble background and un

It can be tough at times living the Christian life, but luckily Jesus knew we would need help. So, He sent us the Holy Spirit to help us. In the book of John, Jesus tells His disciples that He was going to be leaving them, but not to worry, because He will send them a Helper. John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever. The believer receives the Holy Spirit once they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit s

Daniel showed a lot of resilience and courage in his life. He faced the lion’s den and then had men who plotted against him. Daniel never wavered in his faith. He knew where his true source of power came from and that was God. As a result of Daniel’s integrity, and God’s blessing he rose above his counterparts. Having the job that he had was not the great thing about Daniel. It was his calling that was his greatness. He loved the Lord with all his heart, and he love others as

Psalm 105:4 4 Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. God’s love never changes, and He has always been there in our lives. There have been times when God has felt distant, but if we are honest, it was not because He wasn’t there, but times when we turned away from Him. God has promised to give us strength to see us through any challenge. He will give us the courage to face any trial and the wisdom to live the life that is pleasing to Him. Isaiah 41:10 10 So d

Have you ever failed or let God down? I am sure we can all look at a time in our life when we let God down. I know I sure have, and I imagine we all feel the same. You feel bad on the inside for letting our Lord and Savior down. A feeling of being ashamed and questioning our own faith. The bible is full of stories of men of faith that had failed. Remember Jonah, who refused to go to Nineveh, and he tried to get out of going to Nineveh by going to sea toward Tarshish. Then the

God is always faithful, and if we look at the past year, we’ll find that he has been with us, and has been working in our lives – even when we don’t realize it. As we say Hello to the New Year and we put the past year behind us, we need to continue to walk with God daily. Isaiah 43:18-19 Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Th

Terri and I have our traditional New Year meal supplies ready. This has been passed down from my parents. I can remember waking up as a kid on New Year's morning and my mom had great white Northern beans, cooked cabbage, and cornbread ready. We have added another item here in Texas, Black Eye peas. So, in the pantry we have our great norther beans, black eye peas, cornbread, and in the refrigerator, we have our left-over Christmas ham bone and a head of cabbage ready for tom

Looking back on this past year it has been a journey with many paths to destinations across our country. We have seen some wonderful scenery and were at awe at what God has created. There have been many mornings we rose early to see God’s beautiful sunrise and then there were evenings we got back to the campsite after dark because we wanted to see God’s beautiful sunset. The bible talks about the paths we take in life. Psalm 16:11 11 You make known to me the path of life;

Would it be nice if we could control everything in our lives? Well, we don’t, it seems like our trials never seem to end. We all go through trials; I have my trials and I have friends and family going through trials. Our trials vary in length, some trials are for a short period and others seem to never go away. God is allowing adversity in our lives for a purpose. When we look at the heroes of faith in the bible, they all went through seasons of trials. Abraham and Sarah wer