Author: Charles Paisley

When I think of the word “refuge” the immediate word I connect to it is “refugee”. The definition of refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their country to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

Prayer is a fundamental part of following Christ. Private prayer is a time of personal communion with God. It’s a time when we can share with God our deepest longings, our hurts, our griefs, our desires, the challenges we are facing in life, ask our big questions, confess our sin, ask for forgiveness, and so much more. Prayer is how we talk to God. It is a special privilege each of us have.

Corrie Ten Boom was a middle aged woman living in Holland. She was single and lived with her elder father and older sister. They were a family of devout Christians. When their country was conquered by Nazi Germany in 1940, things began to change quickly. Their jewish neighbors began to be arrested and sent to die in German concentration camps. Seeing their plight, Corrie and her family decided they had to help them.

The first time Jesus Christ talked about the church was when he promised to build it upon a personal revelation of who he was. (Matthew 16:13-18) In their epistles, the apostles wrote in great detail about the church, what it was, how it was to function, its purpose, and its mission.

In each of our lives, God has placed gifts and talents. You, and everyone around you, is unique in their own way. Some are talented at administration, some are gifted teachers, some are endowed with the ability and the means to be generous, some are gifted at giving exhortation and encouragement, others are talented musicians or singers. Some are fountains of wisdom and knowledge. These are just a few of the ways God has given us each a unique capacity to serve those around us. In examining the gifts and talents given by God, it is important to first acknowledge where they came from. A gift is something given to us by someone else. And the one who has given us our gifts and talents is God. (James 1:17, Ephesian 4:8, 1 Cor 2:11)By realizing the that gifts we possesses are from God, we may ask the question, why has he given us these gifts? The bible explains to us that God has made us stewards of his gifts so we can use them for the benefit of his kingdom.

The fruit of the spirit have been described as the nine graces of Christian character. Though there are nine of them, they are always spoken of singularly. The nine form a singular indivisible fruit, with each aspect working with and complimenting the other aspects.

During his ministry, Jesus shared different indicators that would serve to identify his disciples. “Bearing much fruit” was one of those indicators and is closely connected to his command to love another. Being fruitful is one of the most important indicators that we are disciples of Christ. In fact, without being fruitful, Christ warns we risk being thrown away and burnt. Seeing that being fruitful is an important pursuit for all Christ’s disciples, it is beneficial for us to have a good understanding of just what it is. So what is fruitfulness? How does it work? And how can be confident that we are fruitful?

Jesus told his disciples that their love for one another would be a mark by which all men would recognize them as his disciples. Knowing the great importance Jesus attached to love helps us understand why his apostles went into so much detail to explain the love of God in their writings. We have been blessed by scripture to have a full explanation of the qualities and characteristics of godly love. As an example to us, Jesus lived a perfect life demonstrating perfectly the love of God. (2 Peter 2:21) In a letter to the Corinthian Church, the Apostle Paul wrote one of the most well-known descriptions of love in all human history. The Corinthian church was beset by rivalries, jealousies, abuses, and mistreatments. To bring their shortcomings to their attention, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul penned the famous lines on the subject of love.