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By Elder Gerald DeForest Tyler

    While there are several biblical passages which make it quite clear that we are to honor our parents, both of them, our fathers and mothers, I decided to place a special emphasis on our mothers for this particular column because this is Mother’s Day weekend, and besides, I wrote a two-part column about not forgetting our fathers just a couple of weeks ago that ran in this newspaper. Yes, by all means, honor our fathers and our mothers, but in this column the focus will be on our mothers. To all the real mothers out there … I love, respect, and honor YOU!

By Gladys McElmore

    Feeling loved helps us to take comfort in God when circumstances confuse or upset us. Satan can make us feel abandoned at times, ignored or that God’s love is being withheld if we let him cause us to not use our steadfast minds. Can God love us in ways we do not recognize? Let us pray for a clearer sense of what it means to be loved by God. He loves us in various ways with different results. Can we learn about tough love through God? Brainstorm for examples of learning to trust and love God through trials and tribulations.

By Elder Gerald
DeForest Tyler

    They say that confession is good for the soul. Haven’t you heard that expression before in life? Well I have many times, so here goes it ... my confession that is. Oftentimes when I look back over my personal life, having been saved now (i.e., born again) since 1976, I wonder how I could have done some of the sinful, shameful, unacceptable, and displeasing things that I have in the sight of Almighty God and Jesus my Lord and Saviour. And I’m talking about since I’ve been saved. Now I don’t really mean that I’ve been a terrible person, please don’t think that, but I have not been perfect. You need to understand that I’m not one of those people who believe that once you get saved, you never sin again. We all sin in some way. The Bible says that all unrighteousness is sin. It also says that the “very thought of foolishness” is sin. Believe me, God’s mercy endures forever for a reason, and that is because you and I need it as long as we live in these human and mortal bodies of ours.

By Mrs. Gladys McElmore

    In this passage of scripture we learn more about the “Golden Rule” and that the practice of reciprocity is inadequate for followers of Jesus Christ. Somehow Christian love must surpass the kind of love that doubters have toward one another. Just as it is stated, believers must love their enemies (Luke 6:27-28). What credit is it to love only those who love us? With mutual feelings, there will be no problems. In other words, what is the distinction between Christians and people in the world? Reciprocity is the way of the world.
  

By Elder Gerald 

DeForest Tyler

          God loves you. God loves me. God loves everyone, that is, he loves all people! Now you might be just saying to yourself that they’re just simple statements. And you might be saying to yourself, now preacher, I know you can come up with something much more profound and meaningful than that. And I just might respond to you by saying I’m not so certain that I can. Have you ever allowed the profoundness, the seriousness, and the meaningfulness of that truth to sincerely permeate and penetrate deep within your heart, soul, and spirit? It’s quite mind-boggling to fully realize, understand, and comprehend the reality and depth of the fact that God loves all of us the way he does. I trust, hope, and pray that I can help it to sink deeper within the very core your very being in this column. So much so, that you’ll begin to rejoice in the God who loves you with an everlasting and unconditional love.

By Gladys McElmore

Paul, as a first century writer of Galatians, was passionate about the teachings of Jesus Christ. For us and as it was with Paul, God sometimes has to get our attention through challenges before showing extravagant and outrageous love! Freedom can be used for good and evil. Being believers in Jesus Christ, we are not to use our freedom for selfish purposes. Ask God to help us to see the needs of others.

Galatians 5:13 tells us, “Do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” We can use our freedom to make life-changing choices for Christ as we continue to encourage others to also remain faithful. We pray to be guided by the Spirit to produce godly character traits which will not gratify the desires of our sinful nature (Galatians 5:16-21).

By Gladys McElmore

Without doubt, many Christians consider Psalm 23 as their favorite scripture. In this psalm David expressed his personal faith and trust in the Lord. It is a clear testimony of God’s goodness, mercy and grace. How can we best explain this message to others? How do these scriptures strengthen us spiritually?

What a wonderful relationship God has established with us. He is our shepherd and we are His sheep. This relationship is personal. Each of us as a Christian knows that the Lord is a shepherd. Because He is, He provides each of us with all of the blessings we need for this world and the next.