Walk With Darrell

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

John 10:10 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life and have it abundantly. Seek first the salvation that is available through Jesus Christ then claim the joy, peace, and the spiritual abundance that the Shepherd offers His sheep. God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. He also wants us to experience a life that is full of peace, and life that is abundant and eternal. God has promised that He

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

One of my favorite pastors is Charles Stanley. A couple of years ago he had a great devotion for us to never take our own revenge. It spoke to my heart, and I wanted to share it with you. Why do we have such a hard time extending forgiveness to others? Perhaps one reason is that it doesn’t seem right. Justice demands that there be repayment or punishment for wrongdoing. However, we are not the ones who have the authority to retaliate. To do so amounts to trying to take contro

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

Matthew 7: 7 – 8 7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What are you dealing with in your life right now? Do you need strength to make it through the day? Are you in trouble? Are you discouraged? Are you lonely? Do you have an illness? Do you feel trapped in an unhappy life? You get the drift; we all have

Does the Lord discipline His children? You bet He does. The Lord uses trials to discipline His children for the purpose of testing and strengthening their faith in order to bring praise, honor, and glory to Jesus Christ. So, what is a trial? According to James Macdonald’s study on trials, “When Life is Hard”, a trial is a painful experience allowed by God to change our conduct and our character. It might sound strange to some, but God does this because He loves us. Hebrews 1

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

Have you ever had to make a decision, and you needed help and were sure where to turn? There is no one better to turn to than God. He has divine wisdom, and He knows everything about us. He understands our deepest wants and needs better than we even know them. Ok, so we need to ask God for guidance….Hmmm. Not real sure how to do that? Isaiah 30:21 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” I