Peace, unity, love, and nonviolence should be our rallying cry and the catalyst for change in our nation.
Tony Evans
Comebacks don't seem likely when your back is up against the wall and your hope is depleted. But if you will stay the course, you will discover God's power to reverse the irreversible in your life.
There are two answers to every question - God's answer and everybody else's - and everybody else is wrong when they disagree with him.
Far too often, we have limited the definition of the Church. While not in all cases, in many cases, 'Church' has become an informational, inspirational weekly gathering rather than the group of people that God has ordained from Heaven to operate on his behalf on Earth in order to bring Heaven's viewpoint into history.
Righteousness has to do with the vertical standard that God gives us to please Him. Justice has to do with the horizontal expression of that righteous standard in the lives of others.
You can't blame things for being dark if the light bulbs aren't working. So we're complaining about the darkness when the bulbs aren't working, and the Bible says that we are the light of the world.
Black lives matter, as a subset of all lives matter. So any injustices to a particular group must be addressed specific to that group but under the banner that all life is created in the image of God.
The truth is an objective standard by which reality is measured; it's God's point of view on any subject.
Every four years, the eyes of America become riveted on the national election returns. But God's first concern during any political season is not the same as our first concern - it is not about what is happening, or going to happen, in the White House. God's first concern is what is happening, or not happening, in His house.
People from different backgrounds may not have natural affinity, but when the Word of God is treated right and the Holy Spirit is allowed to engage, it can bring together things, people, backgrounds, histories, races, colors, and cultures and hold them together in a way that natural affinity may not be able to do.
The saga of a nation is the saga of its families written large. And whoever owns the family owns the future.
Im afraid that when it comes to the Christian life, and especially the issue of assurance, too many of us adopt the Barney Fife approach. That is, we let the enemy bully us into believing that were only safe as long as were wearing our Christian 'uniform.'
Government is not a human institution. It is a divine institution that humans are to run on His behalf. When they create their own rules, then they become against the creator and what He intended for government to do.
God operates the world by covenants. Those covenants have specific jurisdictions and responsibilities, not to be infringed upon by another covenant.
The exclusion of God automatically means the inclusion of evil.
We need to have a unified understanding of our national heritage without losing our personal distinctives. The closer that national heritage is to the rule of God, the more ordered our relationships will become in society.
Technology has changed how people communicate, how people relate, the speed at which this takes place. To ignore that, in the name of preaching the Word, is to forget that we're to preach the Word to people.
Ministry burnout is a real problem because it's never-ending.
If you or the devil or anyone else could remove you from Christ's hand, then that entity would be greater than Christ, and the eternal life He gave you would not be eternal at all. That's an impossible equation.
Anything you can do that connects believers with one another engages the church to go the next level, which keeps the pastor from being burnt out, which therefore keeps him in the ministry.
Football is oneness in action. When played well, it is unity on display. Players come from different races and different backgrounds. However, when they get on the field, they harmonize their differences toward a common goal.
The Bible is pregnant with politics. You cannot read the Bible from Genesis through Revelation and go through too many chapters that are not involving politics.
And when you redefine the family other than what the Creator intended when he established it, then you look at the devolution of civilization.
We don't apologize for who we are. We do what we do as Christians. Our faith isn't hidden. There should never be a separation between God and good works.
We need a right view of the cross. It is both a historical event that can take us to Heaven and a current event that can bring Heaven to bear on Earth.
When you repent and operate on God's standards, now you have restoration and reconciliation.
Government can run and fund programs, but it can't love, it can't show compassion, and it can't embrace. Our faith is designed to have social implications, not just heavenly ones. The spiritual and the social must be connected.
Prayer is the God-given communication link between Heaven and Earth, time and eternity, the finite and the infinite.
God is not asking you to be anything other than what he's made you, as long as you submit to how he has made you, to how you relate to other people who he has made different than you.
I must confess that it is a lot easier for me as a pastor to preach about prayer than to spend that same amount of time engaged in it.
We're going to have to become very aggressive in addressing justice issues that have to do with fairness and doing that which is equitable and honoring to God.
I've talked to men who feel like they're overly sexual and, therefore, are attracted to any female who walks down the street. I will not excuse his activity with every female just because he feels driven in that direction.
God has a kingdom. It's made up of citizens: some black, some white, some red, yellow, Spanish backgrounds. His intention was never that the individual uniqueness would cause them to lose sight of the flag flying over them - the flag of the cross.
Gone must be the days of only pointing fingers at others to fix what they may never fix. Our nation's ills are not merely the result of corruption or racism, although these are evil. Our troubles can also be traced directly to ineffective Christians.
It is in following Christ as our captain that we can win in our personal lives, families, churches, and communities.
I was the oldest of four children, and the atmosphere was volatile for all of us. My father and mother were in constant conflict, making divorce seem like the only possible outcome.
If there is one thing you can count on in your life, it's that your path will not always be easy.
The Church has failed to be a positive influence for good in our nation and our world.
America was never officially a Christian nation, since neither Jesus Christ nor the Bible are mentioned in the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence. But there's no denying the influence Christianity has had on our country.
Human nature being what it is, if you told me you were going to give me one dollar with no strings attached, I probably wouldn't question the gift too much. But if you told me you wanted to give me one hundred dollars with no obligation, I'd have to think about it for a minute before accepting.
The issue of race is not an issue of choice. It's an issue of birth.
Whenever you exclude God and the value system that He represents out of the equation of a life, of a family, or a culture, you create a spiritual vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum. It must be filled with something.
When fathers come home after a tough day at work, they should come home to serve, like my father did, teaching lessons around the dinner table and leading the family in worship and prayer.
In Scripture, a name often connotes purpose, authority, makeup, and character. In fact, a person's name is frequently seen as an equivalent of that person.
Biblical justice is the equitable application of God's moral law in society.
In the urban community, the church doesn't just take people to Heaven; it feeds, clothes, and houses them. It teaches them how to read and gets them jobs. The church should be doing all that. What the government should be doing is freeing up the church and supporting the church, as long as it is providing social services.
If people are taught wrong, raised wrong, or haven't taken the Bible seriously enough, then they can go into academic error, emotional error, psychological error.
We've got to move from membership to discipleship to being full-time Christians, not part-time saints. That means operating comprehensively on the value system of Heaven as we move about in history.
Until we take seriously God's definition of the church and stop just 'having church,' we will not see transformation in our society.
The church is the only mechanism for mass mobilization. That's why the civil rights movement came out of the church.
