Hosanna

by Pastor James Bell Sometimes we refer to it as baggage, but it’s probably more accurate to call it trash. It’s the stuff you don’t want to think about or talk about. It’s that bad, yucky, embarrassing stuff that you carry with you on your journey through life. One of the bizarre similarities between Gehenna, [...]

by Pastor James Bell Proverbs says they are faithful (the wounds, not necessarily the friends). That means there is a caring purpose in the wounds of a friend. Friends don’t hide truth, they share it. Their friendship grows as truth shapes and develops them. If you are like most of us, you have both assumed [...]

by Pastor James Bell It was 5:30, way too early in the morning for me to come strolling into our living room. Suz, an early riser, asked me what I was doing up at this time, and the dogs on her lap twisted their heads as they seemed to question why I had invaded their [...]

by Pastor James Bell A little girl said it well. Riding home from the crowded mall, sharing the backseat with her revved up siblings, she pressed her nose against the cold, foggy window. She saw the brightly lit plywood manger scene in someone’s front yard. Over the noisy voices of her excited brothers and her [...]

by Pastor James Bell What you do when things don’t work out reflects your true character. It’s when you look around for your support group and there is nothing but crickets serenading the darkness. It might be when you yell, “Charge!” and your closest allies retreat. It could be when you seek the solace of [...]

by Pastor James Bell There is a strange conflict raging in many churches today. It is not between the church and the world. It’s between God and his own people. Christians think they are fighting for what is right, even as they are doing what God sees as wrong. When spiritual understanding lifts us above [...]

by Pastor James Bell That’s what I said to myself many years ago. “Give a tenth of my income to God? Yeah, right.” Just the thought of tithing was enough to make me think twice about joining a church. I mean, I didn’t even like to pay retail. Not that I was stingy or that [...]

by Pastor James Bell Her name meant “gifted” and she definitely was. When compared to the others, she was a fresh breeze of excitement and change. She had that “it” quality, and men wrote books to try out their own theories of just what it was that made her so attractive. But she wasn’t a [...]

by Pastor James Bell Ever sample that tasty breakfast? I did years ago without knowing what I was eating. It tasted like sausage to me. And I didn’t become, as the purveyor of this culinary disaster insisted I would, any smarter. In fact, the years have proven to me that brains, as well as eggs, [...]

by Pastor James Bell I have faced God. Really. Okay, it was not in the sense of seeing Him as Isaiah did. I definitely didn’t experience what John did on the Isle of Patmos. My experiences have been more along the lines of Jesus words, “as long as you did it to these, you did [...]