Messages
Listen to sermons and classes online, download messages to your computer, or subscribe to our Podcasts.
Podcasts
Find out about podcasts, and subscribing to receive new messages automatically.
Class Notes
Download class notes in PDF format to go along with downloaded messages.
Recent Comments
Aloha, I just wanted to thank you all, so much for the new way you are doing the Daily Devotionals, I love it and it has been such a blessing to me.. Have a blessed week !
Posted by Muriel Louise Williams on Jan 09, 2012, in response to the devotional on
Thursday, January 5, 2012
I' ve read all your messages from my arriving to Hawaii last November and I have been much blessed.Please, keep up the good job. I m sure there very many like me who appreciate it. Thank you pastor Wayne, thank you pastor Andy.
Posted by Carmen Teresa Coronado on Dec 27, 2011, in response to the devotional on
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
As you point out, Pastor Mike, today's passage is much deeper than most people think. It is a wonderful verse to take the time to ponder. Let us go to a quiet place with this verse, and invite our hearts and minds to reflect upon the deep meaning that the Holy Spirit wants us to learn. Thank you for giving us a nudge to do just that.
Posted by Ann Verblaauw on Dec 09, 2011, in response to the devotional on
Friday, December 9, 2011
We try to also use the "presence gauge" of Jesus Himself: "Would I do this thing if Jesus was visibly sitting right next to me?" His Spirit is, after all, right here inside of us believers. Another challenging gauge that helps us is: "Would I want to be doing this, if Jesus came back at this very moment to take us to Heaven?" We miss Hawaii and send everyone our aloha from Virginia
Posted by The Brzostowski Ohana on Dec 05, 2011, in response to the devotional on
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Thank you, Pastor Wayne.
Posted by Ann Verblaauw on Nov 19, 2011, in response to the devotional on
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Daily eMail Devotional
Friday, July 16, 2010
James 1:16-27 Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.Mirrors can either be your best friend or your worst enemy. It really depends on how you want to look at it (no pun intended). You can look at a mirror and try to fix what does not look right, or you can look at a mirror, upset at what it shows you, and walk away. In verse 23 of our passage, the Word of God is likened to a mirror. When we read the Word of God or hear Bible preaching, the Holy Spirit reveals to you what is inside (Hebrews 4:12). There are two things we can do when the Holy Spirit reveals what is on the inside; we can (like when we look into a mirror) try to fix what is shown to us, or we can get upset at what we see, change nothing, and walk away.
Of course, God desires us to examine ourselves and make the changes necessary. In verse 21 of our passage we read, “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” God wants us to lay aside all the filthiness and the immoral and evil things in our lives and receive His Word with humbleness. The phrase engrafted word is referring to the fact that we should allow the principles of the Word of God to become a part of our nature. I am no gardener, or in no way in to plants, but I understand the word “engrafted” to be a plant term. I understand it to be when scientist or whoever takes parts from different plants and cause them to grow together. Likewise, we are to take the Word of God into our lives and allow It to grow us.
Are you allowing the Word of God to reveal to you what is really inside? If we are honest, we will be like Paul and say, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.” Because there is nothing good within us, we need to allow the engrafted word to grow within us. On your own, you will bear no good fruits; only with God will you be able to bring forth good fruit in your life (John 15:5). What kind of person are you when you look into the mirror? Maybe the same way you look into the mirror is the same way you look at the Word of God.
Love you all!
Pastor Mike
Don't Forget -
