Devotionals

Weekly Devotionals from Pastor Mike Fabarez

Wishing vs Truth

Whenever we study the Bible we have to do our best to let the text speak for itself. The goal is to excavate God’s message, ascertain God’s values, and comprehend God’s perspective. We may have many ideas and expectations about what we hope to uncover and what we wish to find, but the Bible has to be approached with...

Worship

A.W. Tozer was right when he observed that “a low view of God is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us.” It makes sense that our specific view of God will determine the quality of our Christian life. If we view him as casual about sin, then we probably won’t care much about it either. If we...

Who’s Responsible?

Ask any police officer (or watch any reality Cops show) and you’ll see just how creatively we humans can string together a list of excuses for any and every deviant behavior. From the inner-city streets to the therapist’s couch we have become experts in rationalizing why we do what we do, and why what...

Transformation

Unwittingly we often come to church expecting to hear the preacher affirm what we already know and commend what we already practice. And for the growing Christian that is sometimes the case. But more times than not, the word of God forthrightly preached will in some way and to some extent...

Disturbed by Sin

The society in Israel had become compromised, corrupt and forgetful of God. Ezekiel was God’s mouthpiece to point out to them just how far they had regressed into worldliness, and what the divine consequences of that regression would be. Of course not everyone...

Your Conscience

As we seek to proclaim the gospel and uphold, defend and establish the truth of God’s word, it is helpful to remember that God has implanted a witness to the truth within each person’s heart. While those who don’t want to hear our message may protest, the reality is that...

Hate Evil

Psalm 97:10 says it as succinctly as it can be said: “O you who love the Lord, hate evil!” This terse exhortation may come as a bit of a surprise to many Christians. “Hate” after all is something we modern followers of Jesus never want to be associated with. We prefer to be described as loving...

Our Mindset

The Bible persistently calls us to fix our attention on Christ (Heb.12:2), to set our minds on Christ’s agenda (Col.3:1-2), and to keep thinking about and praying for the triumph of Christ’s return (Mt.6:10, 33). Add to this a long list of exhortations for Christians to be mindful of the needs of others and thoughtful regarding...

Praying

Reading through the Psalms can yield enlightening insights regarding what constitutes a godly prayer life. As we read these lines from God’s inspired Psalter we might expect lofty and refined theological ideas encased in polished and pietistic lyrics. Instead, we often encounter the raw emotions of...

Amazing Grace

The doctrine of God’s grace reminds us that not only do we not deserve God’s love and forgiveness, but we actually deserve nothing from God but his exacting judgment. And not the kind of judgment which we would incur were we to sin against a fellow citizen, some high ranking diplomat, or even an exalted and holy angel...

Christian Outreach

I recently read in the paper about a “successful Christian outreach” where many “accepted Jesus as their savior”. The problem, as with most of our modern culture’s take on “salvation”, is that there is little clarity about what these folks are acquiring “salvation from”. The article described the “celebration” as giving some people

Being Separate

There are many who use the statement that Jesus was “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Mt.11:19) to rationalize their social alliances and “after-work” camaraderie with immoral and ungodly people. They do this without any concern or attempt to harmonize the clear statements of Scripture which warn that “bad company ruins good morals”

Evangelism

God’s desire is to see people repent of their sins and place their trust in Jesus Christ. Nothing in all the world could be more urgent or important. Amazingly, God has granted us the privilege of being the avenue through which he does this work.

Loving God With All

Many today suppose that a periodic acknowledgment of God or a half-hearted recognition of Christ should be sufficient to avoid any concerns come Judgment Day. “As long as I am not an atheist or a murderer and I believe in the Man upstairs,” they presume, “then I should be okay.” Perhaps we are partly to blame

Scripture

One big challenge of the Christian life is to courageously stand our ground regarding the veracity of God’s word, while living in a world which makes a sport of mocking, maligning and ridiculing it. It is helpful to regularly study and frequently recall how the Bible stands apart from all other

Spiritual Endeavors

To the sympathetic reader, the last scene in Acts 15 (vv.36-41) appears to be an event brimming with high personal drama and raw emotions. Certainly language such as “sharp disagreement” (v.39) leads our hearts in that direction. But besides that single phrase, all the other words and phrases in the passage

Exalting Evil?

One of the challenges of living a godly life in an ungodly world, is the pressure we face when the world perpetually exalts those who are evil, and expects the rest of us to applaud. As with Isaiah, we live in a culture filled with “those who call evil good and good evil” (Is.5:20). Jesus made it clear that

Funerals

It is remarkable that non-Christians, agnostics and staunch secularists turn into weeping and hope-filled theologians at their loved ones’ funerals. People that rarely give God a thought or ten minutes of contemplation take up the microphone and tearfully recite their poems about the fishing, feasting and frolicking in “heaven”. They speak confidently of

Holiness

The concern for most Christians isn’t “How far from sin can I get?” but rather, “How close is okay?” Anyone who is thoughtful about obedience and wants to distance himself from temptation and sinful behavior is sure to incite the charge of being “a misguided legalist” – as if the accuser knows what biblical legalism is. He usually doesn’t. But it sounds like a good

Consideration

It is unfortunate that we often treat God with less respect and consideration than we treat the people with whom we interact from day to day. This is especially true when it concerns our sin. Were we to come to the realization that we had offended, insulted or sinned against someone at the office or in our neighborhood, most of us would be

Keeping Grace in View

We are prone to forget, especially as we compare our relative righteousness, that our salvation is all of grace. We must never fail to remember that everything about our lives – our spiritual efforts, our moral resumes and our celebrated accomplishments – are all exchanged for Christ’s. Our salvation is secured in the same way

Perseverance

So many Christian virtues orbit around the “stick-to-itiveness” of the biblical word “perseverance”. To be patient or long-suffering, to look to the future with steadfast hope or “wait on the Lord”, to endure trials or persistently pray – these all relate to this fundamental godly trait called perseverance. To exercise biblical

Decisions

Our feelings have been entrusted with far too much authority in our decision-making process. While we may live in a culture that wants to “feel led” before they act, Scripture provides us a template wherein God’s people choose to act righteously and “let their feelings catch up”. Consider the countercultural logic

Empty Phrases

Jesus said that when we pray we should “not heap up empty phrases” (Matthew 6:7). Later he lamented a hypocritical form of worship by quoting the indictment that first came through Isaiah: “These people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me” (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew15:8). We must be so careful

Who Are You Impressing?

Much of the Bible would have us ponder our coming evaluation. God, our Father and our Judge, will be the One to whom we must give an account of ourselves. And so, the logic goes, we must think of him when it comes to our decisions, words, actions and work. Our stewardship before God should always be in the forefront of our minds. And yet it seems we so often

Desert Attitudes

When God led the Israelites out of Egypt, the destination was the promised land of Canaan – a land of abundance and rest. The route was through the desert – which by contrast was hot, difficult and filled with discomfort. As is so often the case, God’s good plans include a path through the desert. From the perspective of the New Testament

Daily Struggle

While we would all love to imagine a Christian life that is tranquil and calm, the truth is it’s not. The Bible is clear that this side of heaven every Christian has been drafted

Hell

Hell. No one likes to think about it. The world attempts to dilute its force by using the word as an expletive or as an impertinent adjective. But much like tax day

Christ Honoring Words

While impossible to master this side of heaven, God calls us to give special attention to replacing our errant and superfluous words with Christ-honoring words that make a good and godly difference (Ephesians 4:29). While this requires restraint and thoughtfulness, the primary focus of this command

Regret

It is not uncommon to hear people say that they have lived their lives with “no regrets”. They often state that they would live just the same if they had it to
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