Category Archives: Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – What to Do When You Mess Up

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So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.—Romans 5:21

There is a game I like to play with my granddaughters that I call Squiggles. I will tell them, “Just put down anything you want on a piece of paper. Make any line—just a little drawing. I don’t want it to be anything.”

So they will draw some crazy little lines. Then I will take their squiggles, their lines on paper with no rhyme or reason, and I will turn them into something. Usually it’s a funny face or a character.

In a much greater way, God can do the same for you. Maybe you have messed up. Maybe you have made a mistake and have done a wrong thing. Guess what? We serve the God of second chances. So you can come to Him and say, “Lord, I have really messed up. Can you help?”

His answer is yes. God will come and redeem the mistakes we have made.

Even Christians can wander away from the Lord. Even Christians can make bad decisions and do really bad things. We are effectively capable of doing anything, even as followers of Jesus, because we still have free wills and old natures. However, if you are a true Christian, even when you have blown it or gone astray, you always will come home again.

Hopefully you will learn from your mistakes. Hopefully you will not go and repeat them again. Hopefully you can fail forward, which means learning from your mistakes, determining to live a more godly life, and helping others not to fall in the same area.

The good news is that God can forgive you and give you a second chance. He will complete the work that He has begun in you (see Philippians 1:6). So even if you have messed up, God still can turn it around.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – How Backsliding Starts

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Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News. —Philippians 1:27

Stop and think for a moment about people who backslide spiritually. It doesn’t happen overnight. You don’t call up your mature Christian friend and say, “Hey, dude. Want to backslide? Seriously? Pick you up at 7:00.”

There might be some foolish person out there who has done that, but generally this isn’t the case. Backsliding usually starts with tolerating something that is sinful, something you never would have gone near before, but now you accept. You sort of put up with it and maybe even play around with it, thinking, Oh, it isn’t going to hurt me. I am so strong. I have walked with the Lord all of these years. I have memorized so many Bible verses.

Don’t think you can’t still fall.

Have you ever seen a baby rattlesnake? They have their little fangs and their little tails and their little rattles. It could actually look cute if you are into that sort of thing. But then it bites you. And the venom of a baby rattlesnake is more potent than that of an adult rattlesnake.

In the same way, backsliding starts with accommodating. You sort of turn a blind eye to something. Then you give in to it and legitimize it. And then you start making excuses for it and defending it. The next thing you know, you embrace it as a normal lifestyle. But that is not the behavior of a real saint, of a real follower of Jesus.

If you want to finish well in the race of life and live joyfully, if you want God to complete the work He has begun in you, then you need to press on as a follower of Christ. He will give you the strength to do it. But you need to ask for that strength every day.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – The Power of Integrity

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That you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. —Philippians 1:10–11

In ancient Rome, fine pottery was relatively thin and fragile and often would develop cracks after firing. Rather than remake the piece, unscrupulous shops would fill the cracks with hard, dark wax and then sell it as new.

So you would take your purchase home and put it outside, and in the blazing Mediterranean sun, parts of it would start to melt. Then you would take that pottery back to the shopkeeper and say, “What have you done? This isn’t right. I want one without wax.”

That is what Paul meant when he prayed that the believers in Philippi would be “sincere and without offense.” Sincere is sometimes translated “without wax.” So Paul was essentially saying, “Move forward in your life without moral failure.” He wrote in 1 Corinthians 10, “Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. (verses 32–33). Another way to translate that is, “Don’t give an unbeliever a reason to not believe.”

Jesus saved his most scathing words not for struggling sinners but for hypocritical believers, those who appeared to be one thing but really were another.

So let’s make sure we are not people who bring reproach to the name of Jesus Christ. Each of us has a sphere of influence. Each of us has a group of people who are watching us carefully. They are scrutinizing every word and hoping we will mess up. When you walk with God, live a godly life, and do what He wants you to do, it drives some of them crazy. And so it should. It is the power of a good testimony.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Should Christians Judge?

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Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? —1 Corinthians 6:2–3

One day I was talking with someone who wasn’t going to church anywhere, and I asked why.

“Well, I don’t want to be judged,” the person said.

The fact was that this individual was doing something unscriptural, and I had mentioned it. I said, “Well, what do you be mean by not wanting to be judged? What is your definition of being judged?”

“Well, I’m afraid that if I showed up, people wouldn’t agree with what I’m doing and would say something.”

“So that is being judged?” I asked.

“Yes, it is.”

“I hope that if you go to a church, someone would say something,” I said. (That would be the loving thing to do.)

I think the nonbeliever’s favorite verse is Matthew 7:1: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” Nonbelievers love to quote that to Christians who dare to confront them. But we need to understand what judge means in this verse. Jesus spoke these words in the Sermon on the Mount, and the word He used for judge means “condemn.” Jesus was saying, “Condemn not, that you be not condemned.”

I am in no position to condemn someone. It is not for me to say who is going to hell. That is for God to decide. But I should apply discernment, wisdom, and even judgment with fellow believers. Judgment is an evaluation. It’s saying to another believer, “Hey, I don’t think you are doing as well as you could be doing” or “I want to encourage you.” That is encouraged in the Scriptures (see 1 Corinthians 6:2–3).

So in a way, we should apply judgment—but not condemnation. We want to lovingly tell the truth from God’s Word with humility, wanting to help that person reach his or her full potential as a follower of Jesus.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – The Why of Divine Election

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For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. —Romans 8:29

It’s a funny thing to me how people will argue about divine election. They will argue endlessly about whom God chooses, about whom God doesn’t choose, and about how to know whether you are chosen by God. But very few talk about why someone is chosen.

So why are we chosen? The Bible says that God chose us to be conformed into the image of His own dear Son. God works all things together for good to ultimately make us like Jesus. Now, what is going to make us like Jesus might be adversity. It might be hardship. It might be suffering. And it also might be blessing in abundance. But it is all in God’s hands, and I have to trust Him for the outcome.

I don’t know what is coming in life, and sometimes it might not make a lot of sense to me. But God promised that it will be a good work. He has also promised in Romans 8:28 that He will work all things “together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” But let’s not forget the verse that follows it: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (verse 29).

So He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. God will finish it, and one day, we will be perfect. Will it be on earth? Absolutely not. It only will be when we get to heaven. In the meantime, I am just thankful that I am chosen. And if you have asked Christ to come into your life, then you can rest in that confidence as well.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – What Happens to Children When They Die?

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“Let the little ones come to me for of such is the kingdom of heaven” —Matthew 19:14

Someone asked this question on my Facebook page.

“My family lost our 14 month old daughter on June 2, and so my question is, what happens to babies when they die? I believe they go to heaven, but as I was reading that people in heaven know about what is happening here on earth, do babies know what is going on? Do they have someone guiding them? Seeing that she was so young, how will she know?”

My response:

Thanks for your question.

I am so very sorry that your daughter left you so soon. This must be heartbreaking for you and your family, but Michael, I have good news: Your daughter is in heaven. Jesus said “Let the little ones come to me for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14). I believe when children die, they go into God’s presence. When King David’s child died, he said “I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me” (2 Samuel 12:23 NLT).

Yes Michael, if you have put your faith in Christ, you will go to your daughter one day and be reunited with her. You do not have to worry about your daughter knowing what is going on, as you asked, for Scripture teaches when we arrive in heaven we will know far more than we do now. The Bible says, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely” (1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT).

When you arrive in heaven, your daughter will recognize you and you her. As far as someone guiding her, the answer is yes. Jesus is, and she is safe with Him.

Hope that helps.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Why We Need Churches

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And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. —Philippians 1:9–11

The Bible tells us that one of the signs of the last days, among other things, will be false teaching. And the only way we are going to be able to detect false teaching is by knowing what the Word of God teaches.

Paul prayed for the Philippian Christians that their knowledge of God’s Word would grow. He said, “This I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent” (Philippians 1:9–10). We need an intelligent, discerning love that does the right thing. The word that Paul used here for approved could be translated “to examine, prove, and analyze.” This is an area in which we all need to grow.

I think there are a lot of Christians who haven’t really formed a proper theology, and maybe one of the reasons is because they jump from church to church. With the various ideas they expose themselves to, they can get a little confused, and they may not really know what they believe about a given subject.

I don’t think that church hopping is good for spiritual growth. But I do think that every Christian needs a church. I think they need a theology. I think they need a pastor. I think they need to be consistent. And I think they need accountability in a church.

Every believer needs to find a church and commit to it. I am not saying that we can’t ever visit a church if we go somewhere else. What I am saying is to find a church, stay there, be faithful, pray for the pastor, listen to what he says, and support that ministry. Be accountable, and develop and use your spiritual gifts in that place.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – The Thing about Love

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I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. —Philippians 1:9

Here is the thing about love. You can’t sit around and wait for the feeling of love. Don’t wait to feel love. Just start doing loving things.

In 1 Corinthians 13 when Paul gave the classic definition of love, he didn’t talk so much about what love is as much as he talked about what love does: “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged” (verses 4–5).

Some people keep a record of everything. They’ll say, “I remember when you said that hurtful thing twenty years ago.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I do.”

You know what? They need to let that go. It’s time for them to forgive.

One of the things Paul prayed for the Philippian believers was that their love would continue to grow. He wrote, “I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding” (verse 9). Paul wasn’t talking about a sentimental love here. Rather, this is a love based on a knowledge of God’s Word.

Jesus said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples” (John 13:35).

And John reminds us, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?” (1 John 4:20).

So don’t talk about how much you love God if you hate someone else. That is not acceptable. If you are a true follower of Jesus, then your life will be characterized by love.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – A New You in 2015

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“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

—Philippians 2:13–14

In our Christian lives, we are working out what God has worked in; there is our part and there is God’s part.

Would you like to become “a new you” in 2015? Do you want to see spiritual change? Here are six tips to put into practice.

  1. Run to win! “Remember that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. You also must run in such a way that you will win” (1 Corinthians 9:24 NLT). There is no point in running for second or third place. Go for the gold!

 

  1. Get rid of extra weight and hindrances. “Lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1). You don’t want excess baggage in the race of life. Are you surrounding yourself with stepping stones or stumbling blocks?

 

  1. Aim for success, not failure. “I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. . .that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:8, 10). Knowing Christ is the goal, and no matter how well you did spiritually last year, there is still far to go!

 

  1. Have a clear objective and focus. “One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple” (Psalm 27:4). Is your aim in life clear and singular?

 

  1. Don’t look back! “Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. . .” (Ephesians 3:13). Learn from the past, but don’t live in it. Break the power of past sins by living for the future!

 

  1. Press on, even when it gets hard! “Press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 3:14). Now is not the time to back off or slow down but to give it your all.
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Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – A Cooperative Effort

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Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. —Philippians 1:6

I love that God finishes what He starts. In contrast, I don’t always finish what I start. I will start a project, get all excited about it, and then lose interest in it and not finish adequately. And I’m not alone. People have unfinished books, unfinished songs, and unfinished buildings. Maybe it’s a lack of resources or power, but more often than not, it’s simply a lack of desire.

God never loses interest in us. Aren’t you glad? Imagine God saying, “I choose you to be My child. I love you. I have a plan . . . uh, . . . I’m going to move on now.” No, God doesn’t do that. He finishes everything He begins. He will finish the work He has begun in your life. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that He is “the author and finisher of our faith.”

Notice Paul didn’t say, “You who have begun a good work in you.” Rather, he said, “He who has begun a good work in you.” This work is not up to us to finish; it is up to God to finish. It is not for us to work out; it is for God to work out. There is our part, and there is God’s part.

However, it is possible to be resistant to the work that God wants to do in our lives. He has given each of us a free will. We can sabotage our lives. We can make stupid decisions and do bad things, even as followers of Jesus Christ. Now, true followers will come to their senses, repent, and turn back to God. But that doesn’t mean they still won’t face the consequences of the wrong decisions they made.

God wants to do a work in you, but God is also looking for your cooperation.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Better Than Happiness

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Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again–rejoice! —Philippians 4:4

Imprisoned in Rome and chained to a guard day in and day out, the apostle Paul faced an uncertain future. He didn’t know whether he would be acquitted or beheaded. Yet Paul was able to rejoice amid those circumstances.

We see this theme throughout Paul’s letter to the believers at Philippi. Nineteen times in four chapters, Paul mentioned joy, rejoicing, or gladness. For instance, when he thought of the Philippian believers, it brought a smile to his face. He wrote, “Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy” (Philippians 1:3–4).

When he encouraged them to walk together, he became joyful just thinking about it. He told them, “Make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose” (Philippians 2:2).

When he mentioned he was sending Epaphroditus to them, he urged them to receive him joyfully: “I am all the more anxious to send him back to you, for I know you will be glad to see him, and then I will not be so worried about you. Welcome him with Christian love and with great joy . . .” (Philippians 2:28–29).

Even when Paul thought about his potential death, he was still full of joy. In verse 21 of Philippians 1 he said, “For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.”

Then Paul got down to the bottom line of it all when he said in chapter 4, verse 4, “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!”

Despite his imprisonment, Paul wrote a letter to the saints at Philippi that resonated with joy. And joy is better than happiness.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Prewired for Hope

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“For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News” —Colossians 1:4–5

Did you know that you were prewired for hope? There is a restlessness in the human heart for something more than this world can offer.

As Augustine said, “You made us for Yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.”

As believers, our hope is built on a sure foundation, and that is the hope of heaven. The apostle Paul spoke of faith that springs from this hope: “For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven” (Colossians 1:4).

It is a bit like the Golden Plovers. Native to Hawaii, these little birds migrate during the summer to the Aleutian Isles, some 1,200 miles away. There they mate and lay their eggs. Then, after their little fledglings are born, they return to Hawaii. Even more amazing is that their little fledglings, which are too young to return with their parents, fly to Hawaii once they have grown a little. God has given them a homing instinct that makes this possible.

In the same way, God has given us a homing instinct for a place we have never been. We have never been to heaven, but we long for it, because heaven is our home. C. S. Lewis calls it the inconsolable longing. This is what the Bible means when it says that God has set eternity in our hearts (see Ecclesiastes 3:11). Like the Golden Plovers, we have a heavenly GPS.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Respect His Name

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“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” —Exodus 20:7

Do you care about your name? Do you like it when people slander you or say things that aren’t true about you? Have you ever had that happen? I have. No one enjoys that. We want to protect our name. The Bible says that “a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold” (Proverbs 22:1).

God cares about His name, too. And He tells us, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain” (Exodus 20:7). The words in vain literally could be translated “in an empty, idle, insincere, frivolous way.”

So how do people take the Lord’s name in vain? One obvious way is profanity. Isn’t it interesting how people use the name of Jesus Christ so often? Even nonbelievers, in their spiritually deadened state, know there is something different about the name of Jesus. We don’t hear people exclaiming, “Buddha!” or “Hare Krishna!” In a backhanded way, nonbelievers acknowledge the power of Jesus even when they’re misusing His name.

Another way people take His name in vain is by saying “I swear to God.” Jesus said, “But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37). Your word should be enough.

Let me add another way that people take God’s name in vain that’s important for us to be aware of: Saying “Oh my God” a lot. That seems to be a popular phrase now. But it’s taking God’s name in vain. The same goes for texting OMG. Don’t do that. Don’t use God’s name in an empty way.

God cares about His name, and so should we.

 

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – The 3 Things we can give to God in 2015

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“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”—Matthew 6:21

As we enter into a new year, here is something to remember: When it’s all said and done, we have three things we can offer God—our treasure, our talent, and our time. Each of these is given to us by God, and each of them should be given back in generous portions.

First, there is our treasure. I urge you to commit yourself to give faithfully and generously to the Lord in this coming year. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21 NKJV). Whenever we put our money into something, we develop a vested interest in it. It makes sense to us that we would place our treasures where our hearts are. If we love reading books, or being entertained, or the latest technology, we spend our treasure on those things. And if our heart’s desires change, that changes where we put our treasure.

But it works the other way too: Where we put our treasures, our heart will follow. Do you want your heart to be in the things of God? Then put your treasures in the things of God! Develop a vested interest in God’s kingdom.

The second thing we can give to God is our talent. God has gifted each believer in different ways. Everyone has something to offer for the work of the kingdom. Romans 12 says, “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us different work to do” (NLT).

Finally, there is our time. Let’s say that one day your phone rang and it was the president of the bank that you use. He told you that an anonymous donor who loved you very much had decided to deposit 86,400 pennies into your bank account each and every morning. At first, maybe that didn’t seem like a lot. But then you figured out that it was $864 a day. At seven days a week and 52 weeks a year, those pennies add up to almost $315,000 each year! But the bank president added one thing: “The anonymous giver said you must spend all of the money on the day you receive it! No balance will be carried over to the next day. Each evening the bank must cancel whatever sum you failed to use! Remember, what you don’t spend is lost.”

That may sound like fantasy, but here’s the reality: Every morning, Someone who loves you very much deposits into your “bank of time” 86,400 seconds, which represent 1,440 minutes, which of course equals 24 hours each and every day. God gives you that much to use each day. Nothing is ever carried over on credit to the next day. There is no such thing as a 27-hour day. It’s called time, and you can’t escape it. Time is ticking away right now. The Bible tells us to “redeem the time”—to make sacred and wise use of every opportunity.

Offer God your treasure, your talent, and your time. Live this next year as if it were your last, because it could be. Make those minutes count!

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Why a Jealous God?

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“For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.” —Exodus 20:5

We usually view jealousy as something negative, and certainly it can be. We might think of a jealous person as controlling, demanding, and even prone to fly into a rage without the slightest reason.

But in Exodus 20 God says, “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God” (verses 4-5, emphasis added).

God is a loving Father. He loves us and wants an exclusive relationship with us. Is that unreasonable?

If you have children, then I think you are probably a jealous parent. You want the best for your child. You probably think your child is the best at whatever it is that he or she does, whether it’s athletics or music or something else. In the same way, God loves you, and He wants the best for you. So He is jealous in a sense.

I would also think that if you are married, you are probably a jealous husband or wife. How would you feel, wives, if your husband said, “My date is here. I’m going out with her now. Can she borrow that outfit that looks really good on you?” No self-respecting wife would put up with something like that. Nor should she.

God is a jealous God and wants an exclusive relationship with us. He is saying, “You belong to Me, and I have committed myself to you. So that is the way it needs to be.” That is the concept being communicated when God described himself as a “jealous” God.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Two Ways to Be Happy

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Praise the LORD! How joyful are those who fear the LORD and delight in obeying his commands. —Psalm 112:1

There are two ways that we can live our lives: the right way or the wrong way. There are two paths that we can take in life: the right path or the wrong path. The result is that we can live either the happy and holy way or the miserable and unholy way.

Everything you’re looking for is found in a relationship with God. Take the story that Jesus told about the prodigal son. It appears from the story that he wanted nice clothes, great food, and parties. So he left home and spent all of his money. And then he returned home, empty-handed and miserable.

But what was the first thing his father did? He gave him some nice clothes. He ordered his servants to prepare some fine food. And then he said, “We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began” (Luke 15:23-24). Everything the son was searching for was in his father’s house all along.

The way to be a happy person will be found in what you do and don’t do. Psalm 1:1 says, “Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.” So these are things that happy people don’t do.

But then the passage tells us what happy people do: “They delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do” (verses 2-3).

So happiness comes not only from what you do, but also from what you don’t do.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Make Your Choice

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“And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” —Joshua 24:15

Are you trying to live in two worlds? If so, then I know something about you. I know you’re not happy. Am I right? When you spend time around other Christians, you’re uncomfortable because of your sin. On the other hand, when you’re doing things you know you shouldn’t as a Christian, then you have the conviction of that sin.

I have an idea: Stop doing that stuff. Make your choice. As Joshua said to the Israelites, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve . . . But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).

Every one of us must make that decision. I can’t make it for you, and you can’t make it for me.

Are you in a relationship that is dragging you down (see 2 Corinthians 6:14)? Are you doing things that are weakening your resolve? Stop doing those things.

I’m not saying it is easy. We all get tempted. We all have a sinful nature. And as Christians we all have a God who will give us the strength to do what He has called us to do.

It really comes down to this: Do you really want to change? If you do, then God will give you that resolve. When the Lord came to Moses and spoke to him through the burning bush, Moses basically said, “I can’t do this. I don’t know what to say. I stumble over my words.”

But later in Exodus we see him facing off with the most powerful man on the face of the earth. That is because God gave him the strength.

In the same way, God will give you the strength to do what you need to do. Don’t live in two worlds. Make a complete commitment to Jesus

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak

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Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls. —Proverbs 25:28

In this day of instant information, we can get our news so fast that we don’t have to wait for the evening news anymore. We don’t have to wait for the newspaper. We can go out on the Internet and get our news in real time.

I think this makes it hard for us to slow down and listen, especially to God. Many of us are like Martha in Luke’s Gospel, running around in our little self-made circles of activity instead of calmly sitting at His feet and listening like Mary did.

But James 1:19 tells us, “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” We ought to post that verse where we can see it every day. How different our lives would be if we heeded its admonition.

James tells us we should be swift to listen, but we also should be slow to speak. How many times have you blurted out something, only to regret it the moment it left your lips? Jesus said, “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37).

We should be slow to anger. How easy it is to rationalize our outbursts of rage (especially when we are driving). But Proverbs 29:11 says, “Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back” (NLT).

How much better our lives and our witness would be if we were swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath!

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – What God Can Do

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He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. —Colossians 1:13

Our society doesn’t really have answers for all the problems we are facing in our country today. Ironically, our society seems to do everything it can to undermine the only one who can help us, and that is Jesus Christ.

There are people caught in our legal system as repeat offenders. There are judges who make the wrong decisions. There is the breakdown of the family. And all of these elements combined produce a society that can do very little to change a person’s heart, if anything at all. Rehabilitation efforts largely fail. In fact, the only real programs that seem to produce lasting change are faith-based, and more specifically, are being operated by Christians who are calling people to faith in Jesus Christ. Society doesn’t have the answers.

Jesus met two men whose lives had been controlled and ruined by Satan. Society didn’t have the answers. Enter the Savior, Jesus. What did He do? He sought them out in their graveyard and offered them hope. In fact, Luke’s account of the story tells us what happened to one of the men who was delivered: “Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid” (Luke 8:35). Why were people afraid? They didn’t know what to make of it. He was so transformed it frightened the people. They couldn’t even imagine a guy like him could be changed in such a dramatic way.

It is such a glorious thing when Christ so transforms someone that you can’t even imagine that person being what he or she used to be. You realize that it is the power of a changed life. And that is what God can do.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Christmas in Heaven

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Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. —Luke 2:10

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Christmas is a day of joy. But for me and my family, it is also tinged with sadness, because it is a day when Christopher’s absence is intensely felt.

I have to tell you, Topher loved Christmas! It was always a big deal to him as a little boy, and when he became a father, he wanted it to be a big deal for his daughters. He always was so thoughtful in his choice of gifts and often made them by hand, which was always a special treat for me. He also had fantastic “wrapping skills,” which I am completely devoid of.

On that first Christmas night, while the shepherds kept watch over their flocks, the angel brought this good news: “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people” (Luke 2:10).

This is how heaven celebrated the first Christmas. On this holy night, in effect, heaven momentarily came to earth. Heaven and earth are always co-existing, but sometimes they can seem worlds apart and other times separated by only a thin veil. When tragedy hits, when illness prevails, heaven can sometimes seem distant.

But when we join the angels in worship, and see God in His greatness, heaven can seem so very, very close. For us as believers, we are just a heartbeat away from heaven right now. As David put it, “There is but a step between me and death” (1 Samuel 20:3).

Christmas in heaven is better than Christmas on earth. It is pure bliss. Not twinkling lights, but the radiant light of heaven itself. Not metal angels on trees, but real, holy angels of God all around.

You see, in heaven there is peace. On earth there is war. In heaven there is perfect harmony. On earth there is often friction among family and friends. In heaven, feasting and perfection. On earth there is fattening food and expanding waistlines.

We don’t need to sorrow for our loved ones who are celebrating Christmas in heaven, but we do sorrow for ourselves over their absence.

Today, however, remember to let the ones on earth you love know it. Tell them verbally. Because you never know if you or I or someone we hold dear might be in heaven next Christmas.

So have a blessed and merry Christmas day.