humility

Obey His Commands

December 9, 2024 by Tim Sherfy

It’s easy to read the Bible at such a surface level that we never grasp what it’s saying. Most of us are aware of a verse like John 14:15, which says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commands” (see also 1 John 5:3a). We say we love Him, which means we obey His commands. But what are those commands? Do you know what it is you should do to confirm your love for Him?

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If we read this verse like we’re reading a novel, we’ll never grasp how the Word of God applies to the way we live. We must do the deeper work of studying God’s Word so we understand what it means. What are the commands we must keep so we might show our love for Him?

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Who Do You Think You Are?

November 4, 2024 by Tim Sherfy

Who do you think you are? That’s not a recommended conversation starter, but I think it’s a question we should often ask ourselves and others. In a world where everyone wants to create God in their image or deny He exists at all, I think it’s a fair question. Once upon a time, there was a man named Job who suffered almost every loss and calamity imaginable.

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Being a God-fearing man, he couldn’t make sense of the logic of it all. He was confident if he could present his case to God, that the Lord would relent and exonerate him from all his sufferings (Job 13:3; Job 23:3-5). God’s response was to ask Job the question we are contemplating today: “Who do you think you are?”

One Life

October 28, 2024 by Tim Sherfy

Don’t waste the one life God has given you to bring glory to His holy name (1 Corinthians 10:31). Life is brief. It is not something that you can grasp, but vanishes like a mist (James 4:14). Like grass that withers after a short time or a flower that wilts soon after reaching the height of its beauty, so is your one life (1 Peter 1:24). It is here today and gone tomorrow.

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In his first epistle to the churches, Peter goes to great lengths to instruct us how we should live our lives in a manner pleasing to God and worthy of His glorious name. We have only one life and will do well to heed the wisdom in this letter.

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Rise Above the Hatred

October 10, 2024 by Tim Sherfy

The media and our daily experience inform us hatred is on the rise and becoming the prevalent emotion in society today. Never in my lifetime has there been such division across every line: political, cultural, racial, sexual, you name it. The informed and uninformed alike dig into the trenches of their viewpoints and refuse to accept or even listen to alternative viewpoints and ideas.

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Instead of polite discourse, every conversation today seems to devolve into shouting and interruption. Whoever shouts the loudest and longest is the victor. As Christ-followers, we are called to rise above the hatred and not respond in kind (Romans 12:17-21). If we act like and look like the world, the world will never see Jesus in our lives (John 13:34-35).

Scenes From the Rebellion

September 5, 2024 by Tim Sherfy

Everywhere you look, you will see examples of our rejection of God’s Word. I call them “scenes from the rebellion”. All you have to do is open the scriptures and read the commands of God to see how we revolt against His design for how we are to live. Reading God’s Word is a giant indictment of our selfishness and desire to make ourselves higher than God (Romans 1:21-23).

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Today I was reading James where he writes, “… Everyone must be slow to speak and slow to anger, for man’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness” (James 1:19-20). It’s as if James was looking at our modern culture and writing down the opposite of everything we practice. This is how far we are from living in obedience to God’s Word. We are living 180 degrees from God’s standard.