Transition

No matter how long we have been saved, we will always be in transition. There is always more for us to learn; more change that needs to occur. The world sees us as Christians so we must clothe ourselves as such; we must express the brand-new nature even as a preview of what is to come.~ DickEvans.org

Know Jesus

We can read our Bible to learn about Jesus. We can get books that others have written and even study old manuscripts from the times that Jesus was on this earth to find out more about Him. But that helps us to know about Him. It does not mean that we know Him. It takes a 24x7 relationship to really know Jesus. And that is what He expects of each and every one of His followers. He wants us on Sunday mornings in church, but that is where He expects to find us praising and worshipping the Father. Our relationship with Jesus continues for the rest of the week and that is how we can get to the point of saying that we know Him.~ DickEvans.org

It's Our Choice

When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we became born again. We can choose to be molded into the Christian that the world expects us to be by copying the behavior and customs of other believers. Or we can be encouraged by other believers to develop our own personal relationship with God and let Him transform us into the new person He designed us to become.~ dick.evans.org

No Longer A Slave To Sin

When you don't have a relationship with someone, how can you know the protocol? It is when we develop a relationship with God that He can infuse us with His nature and we know without a doubt what sin is all about. We know that if it does not please Him, it is sin, no matter what the world says about it. So as we move ahead in our transformation walk, Holy Spirit teaches us more each day. The more we absorb, the more we change. When He is in our lives daily, we are no longer slaves to sin.~ DickEvans.org

He Teaches Us

What comes easy teaches little, while that which we battle through teaches much. And when we have gotten to the other side, we can tell the story of how we made it. Then we can reach out and help others to make it too. Since they know we made it, they know that so can they. God is right with us in every situation that life throws at us. He gives us the strength to press on and make it to the end. He teaches us through all of our experiences. Not only do they help us learn to endure, but they also build our character, and add to our experiential knowledge which is useful to fulfill the purpose God has for us in His plan.~ DickEvans.org

Trouble

It is not about trouble coming our way or not, it is about how we deal with the trouble that does. Out of every tribulation springs opportunity. We just have to look for it. If someone had tried to tell me twenty years ago that I would be doing what I am doing, I would have told them they were crazy. But as I look back over my life I can see how He used those past tribulations to cause the growth in me which allows me to be used by Him today. Praise God for the trials He has pulled us through and for helping us to become the people we are today.~ DickEvans.org

Rest In His Peace

I used to think that everyone had the same kind of experiences as I had, but now I know differently. Many have been facing trials and sorrows most of their lives. While we live on this earth, we will always be faced with unfair situations, trials, and tribulations. Some think that because they have been saved and crossed over from heathen to Christian that the trials are over. They are not. However, Jesus is with us as we walk through them, guiding us and encouraging us all the way. We can rest in His peace knowing He has overcome the world.~ DickEvans.org

Press On

Even with our own children, we continue to press on when they seem not to hear. We must also press on with God’s children. When their hearts are ready, they will stand in awe of His mighty presence and will understand all we are preaching to them. They will see Christ for who He really is and not what the world has made Him out to be.~ DickEvans.org

Equip The Saints

From the new believer to those in ministry for years, each has to balance what they earn with what they spend. So it is not surprising that many a minister expects to get paid well when he shows up for a weekend of ministry, but is the purpose of the ministry making money or is it to fulfill God's purpose of equipping the saints for the work of the ministry? When it comes to preaching God's word, it is to be the same with or without compensation. It is to be preached with sincerity and with Christ's authority for God is watching.~ DickEvans.org

His Nature

God is looking for us to take on His nature, not the nature of the world. We have to make a decision to allow Him to change us, but we don't do the changing. He does it gradually as we build our relationship with Him. In the meantime, it is up to us to avoid anything that goes against what we know His nature to be. So don't just pretend to be good when you are around other Christians or those in authority over you. Avoid anything that will teach you that wrong is right. Be the best you can be all the time because that is God's plan.~ DickEvans.org

We Are The Light

We are believers and followers of Christ. We are full of His light, from the inside out. Where light resides, darkness cannot. If we were in a dark room with a flashlight freshly filled with batteries, we would turn it on so we could see; so the darkness was replaced with light. We are that light to the dark world. We need to keep our batteries charged and understand that it is through our behavior that we switch that light on.~ DickEvans.org

Conscious Choice

Without our conscious choice to allow Holy Spirit to change us, we might find that we are the same in the future as we are right now. So we should never be content to stay where we are. We must not only allow Him to change us more into His nature, but we must also ask Him to do so regularly. No longer will we allow ourselves to be slaves to the father of this world. No longer will we be pushed and pulled to this temptation or that one. We will instead be slaves to Christ, bondservants to Him, and forever on our journey to eternity.~ DickEvans.org

Knitted to Christ

As we live our life knitted to Christ, non-believers see the changes in us and respect what they see. But if we live as we have always lived, what testimony does that deliver to them? Let our lives be a testimony to His greatness as we fill the role of a resident alien in our own cities.~ DickEvans.org

Choose

God does want us to choose the right path, but then He expects us to make every effort to live that pure and blameless life as we allow Him to change us into His image.~ DickEvans.org

His Work Counts

Our destiny was decided long before we were ever thought of by our parents. God has prepared work for each of us according to His plan. Yet how often do we decide what God wants us to do instead of listening to His voice? Although our works are applauded by many, they may only be just that; our works. They give us stature and position here on earth, but they may not get us one step closer to our purpose in God. It is His work that counts.~ DickEvans.org

He Died For Our Freedom

Jesus gave up His life for our freedom. He freed us from the penalty for sin and gave us passage rights into eternity with Him. I can imagine how the first-hand reports of the events at the Cross were passed from person to person. Had the news media been around, it would have taken over the airwaves reporting the details for all to see. Here we are, two thousand years later, and like all the wars and all those soldiers that died for us and our freedom, how many have forgotten what Jesus did or have dismissed it as just a story about what may have happened long ago. No, His story lives on in each and every believer that is being transformed into His image daily. Like the stories of wars fought for the sake of freedom, His story is fact; not fiction.~ DickEvans.org

Perfect

God wants us to be perfect, yet He knows that the journey to that perfection will take us our lifetime.~ DickEvans.org

Exposed

We are exposed and naked before our God 24x7. How often do we really think about that? How many things would we do differently if we really understood that statement? Nothing can hide from Him. Isn't it time we started to live like we know that? ~ DickEvans.org

Guiding Light

When Jesus is speaking of darkness in John 8:12, it is a different kind than what we see with our natural eyes. He is speaking about the stumbling we go through on our journey through this life on earth. He knows the destination we are seeking. And only He can guide us along the way. Try as we might to use our education, logic, and worldly experience, we are unable to find our way by ourselves. Jesus is our guiding light. ~DickEvans.org

Allow Him

God does not want us to be an exact copy of anything this world has to offer. He wants each of us to be the unique person He designed us to be. By copying the behavior and customs of this world, we take on attributes of the father of this world instead of our Father God. It is only by allowing ourselves to be transforming into His image that we will become the unique children made to serve and please Him.~DickEvans.org

Trust Him

God created His plan for each of our lives before he formed the earth. He is the ultimate project manager. He is keeping track of all whoever or will ever live from before birth here on earth to eternity. He never makes a mistake. His timing is perfect with all the necessary components arriving at the right time. It is not for us to manage, but for us to trust in Him.~DickEvans.org

Focus On God

We are trained to look to those with learned wisdom for guidance and direction. We look to our parents, our teachers, our government officials, and even to our church leadership for all the answers. This is not what God expects of us. God wants our undivided attention. He wants us to look to Him as the first and final point of reference in all that we do. When our focus is on Him everything else falls into its proper place.~ DickEvans.org

Watchmen

As believers, we are brother and sister. We are all members of His family; all children of God. We find it easy to speak to our natural siblings to warn them of sin in their life; to warn and even offer a helping hand or an ear to listen. God expects us to do the same with those in our church family being careful that our warnings are in love and not with pointing fingers and harsh words. We are watchmen on the wall for others in the body of Christ, for those that we are in a relationship with.~ DickEvans.org