Righteously Redeemed

NOT GUILTY Follower of Christ Friday  By: Guest Blogger, Pastor Doug Bell What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Most of us have sung this song yet struggle to earn forgiveness. Most of us have sung this song, yet struggle with grief, guilt and condemnation. We struggle so much living forgiven, that we make others earn our forgiveness. You see, whenever we think we must earn God’s forgiveness, we will force others to earn ours. This is a sure sign we haven’t received forgiveness, but are in a sense making payments on a debt that was cancelled a long time ago. As difficult as it can be to understand, Christ blood washed our 21st century sins away a couple thousand years before they were committed. Some of us struggle to realize the sin stronghold we have today, is therefore, not our sin! 1 Peter 2:24 says it this way, “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross...”.  Christ took our sin upon Him,

The other day I walked into a restaurant and this picture caught my eye. The title quickly grabbed my attention and the quote drew me in. I snapped a picture so I could share it with you.  I love this definition of success.  I feel like we get the wrong idea of success way too often. We think and view success as 1. A productive day 2. A prosperous job 3. A picture- perfect family 4. Popularity But what is success really and how does God view success? I think Matthew 5:16 gives us a  beautiful definition of a successful Christian...  "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." A successful Christian is one who let's her light shine and allows God to have the glory. This should be our entire goal...to let our lights shine for Him.  Let our light shine in the good times. Let our lights shine in the bad times. Let our lights shine during our struggles.  Let our lights  in our marriages.  Let our lights s

Follower of Christ Friday  by Brandi Bell  Have you ever said something and then went "Ohh, wait, why did I just say that out loud?" Then you know you regretted it! Or perhaps you've thought something, almost said it, but had been able to catch yourself before you said it.  Either way the tongue was trying to flap.  Sometimes it seems like it is easier than controlling the wind, right? Did you know that The Word of God even alludes to tongue taming being a difficult task in James where it says "if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way." James 3:17.  Wow!  If we can control our tongue we could control ourselves in  every . other . way.    That's pretty powerful if you stop and think about it!   I encourage you to read on in Chapter 3 of James as he describes just how powerful the tongue is. Everything from being like a rudder on a ship, or a tiny spark that makes a fire... go ahead, I'll wait

I AM NOT ALONE  Follower of Christ Friday  by Brandi Bell  Yesterday as I was driving around with one of my sons we noticed that to the west of us were some dark clouds. Naturally we then noticed to the east of us it was still beautiful blue skies with cumulus clouds litering the sky.  My son was even aware "Mom, isn’t that crazy on one side of us is darkness and on the other side it’s still beautiful and pretty."   Well as we turn the corner, and head into another direction it turns out we were now going towards the storm. While only a short time ago we had been moving away from it.  Me, seeing the moment for teaching for myself and my son I explain to him that at a moments notice we could be heading into a storm.   I said, "Look, right now we’re coming out of the storm, and now that we have turned 'what are we doing?"  He replied,  "We’re heading into the storm."   I continued, "Right, and if this car represents God where is God in all of it?&qu

A little song that I learned as a child has been dancing around in my head the last few days. It goes like this... This is my commandment that you love one another that your Joy may  be full. This is my commandment that you love one another that your Joy may be full. That your Joy may be full.  This song is inspired of course from the well known Bible verses John 15: 11-12 - " These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.  This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you."  So today, I just want to ask a few question:     1. How is your JOY?            Is it full?            Does it exist?      2. How is your love to others?            Is it full?           Does it exist?  The best way to answer this question is to compare our level of love to how the Bible defines love. We will find this definition in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 4  Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vauntet