It’s often said that the Christian faith is caught more than it is taught…The world needs to see the Church as the place of peace, love, and forgiveness. For those outside the Body of Christ to see this, to believe it is possible, we must become better imitators of God, instruments of his grace.

God draws us to him, but he is not going to force us to believe. We must understand who God is and come to him willingly. He created us with free will. We can accept or reject God.

The phrase ‘be not afraid’ or ‘have no fear’ or ‘fear not’ occurs at least 80 times throughout the Bible. It is the most commonly repeated phrase in the Bible. God often uses these words to comfort His people in times of fear and distress. In those moments fear is replaced with calm acceptance of the protection of God.

Being biblically prophetic is not about predicting the future, like Nostradamus That is a secular notion. Being biblically prophetic is about warning the people of God about the inevitable consequences of turning away from him. So we must not be confused about this basic distinction between predicting and warning.

There is something deep within our broken human nature that still desires the very thing we reject—divine revelation and love.

God’s will for us is not always what we want for ourselves, or those we love. But God’s love is much larger than all our pain or sorrow.