First Cause
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Global >
      • United States
      • Africa
      • Democratic Republic of Congo
      • Guatemala
      • India
      • Kenya
      • Mexico
      • Nicaragua
      • Nigeria
      • Peru
      • Rwanda
      • Sweden
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
    • Leadership
    • Our Team
    • Our Statement of Faith
  • Training
  • Leader Resources
    • Outreach
    • Quotes A-C
    • Quotes D-F
    • Quotes G-K
    • Quotes L-O
    • Quotes P-R
    • Quotes S-U
    • Quotes V-Z
    • Worship
    • Testimonials
    • Annual Newsletter
  • Leader Podcasts
  • Blog
  • Prayer
    • A Link In The Chain
    • Prayer Request
    • Long Eternal Line
  • STORE
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Inicio
  • Nosotros
    • Liderazgo
    • Equipo
  • Capacitacion
  • Eventos
  • Blog Devocionales
  • Galeria
  • Contacto
  • Link Page
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Global >
      • United States
      • Africa
      • Democratic Republic of Congo
      • Guatemala
      • India
      • Kenya
      • Mexico
      • Nicaragua
      • Nigeria
      • Peru
      • Rwanda
      • Sweden
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
    • Leadership
    • Our Team
    • Our Statement of Faith
  • Training
  • Leader Resources
    • Outreach
    • Quotes A-C
    • Quotes D-F
    • Quotes G-K
    • Quotes L-O
    • Quotes P-R
    • Quotes S-U
    • Quotes V-Z
    • Worship
    • Testimonials
    • Annual Newsletter
  • Leader Podcasts
  • Blog
  • Prayer
    • A Link In The Chain
    • Prayer Request
    • Long Eternal Line
  • STORE
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Inicio
  • Nosotros
    • Liderazgo
    • Equipo
  • Capacitacion
  • Eventos
  • Blog Devocionales
  • Galeria
  • Contacto
  • Link Page
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Reveration Blog

7/3/2023 1 Comment

"The Sparkle Creed"

Picture
​Edina Community Lutheran Church, an ELCA congregation in Edina, Minnesota, celebrated Pride Sunday led by their female pastor in reciting the sparkle creed whose words state:
I believe in the non-binary God whose pronouns are plural. I believe in Jesus Christ, their child, who wore a       fabulous tunic and had two dads, and who saw everyone as a sibling child of God. I believe in the rainbow Spirit, who shatters our image of one white light and refracts it into a rainbow of gorgeous diversity.[1]
This creed is a gross perversion of theology. It represents the misguided attempts of a congregation to fit God into their inclusive agenda that will spare no expense to accommodate a world fully intent on making sexual sin something to celebrate and force upon all those who take God’s warnings seriously and strive to obey Him.  ​

Read More...
1 Comment

4/23/2023 1 Comment

Because of His Majesty

Picture
How do we avoid sinning?  It’s a fundamental question that has many implications for our lives.  Reading through the book of Job, we can pick up some amazing insights from a man horrifically tormented by Satan for his righteous life. In chapter 31, Job identifies at least thirteen things that would be inappropriate for him to do, with verse 23 serving as the lynchpin for his profound reasoning.

Read More...
1 Comment

11/7/2022 1 Comment

Salvation with Fear and Trembling

Picture
Salvation is a free gift received by a heart that recognizes sin, takes responsibility for it through confession and repentance, and then places one’s faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, that He is Lord and the only One capable of sacrificing His life to pay the debt of sin, forgiving transgressions so that all who place their faith in Him might experience eternal life with Him. 


Read More...
1 Comment

6/29/2022 0 Comments

Understanding Delay

Picture
I hope this is an encouraging word for someone—discouraged by delays, by the hiccups of life that seem insidious; by the time that goes too fast when you want it to be slow and too slow when you want it to be fast. ​

Read More...
0 Comments

5/7/2022 0 Comments

Buried Like a Donkey

Picture
Meditation
Jeremiah 22:18,19--Therefore, this is what the Lord says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will not mourn for him, saying, “Woe, my brother!” or “Woe, my sister!” They will not mourn for him, saying, “Woe, lord! Woe, his majesty!” He will be buried like a donkey, dragged off and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem

Read More...
0 Comments

3/6/2022 0 Comments

Busted

Picture
Ralph wanted to go to the movies with his friends but attending cinemas was not allowed in his church.  So, he concocted a story and asked his mother if she would give him a ride to his friend Harold's house the next day to attend his birthday party. She mentioned they would need to get Harold a birthday gift, but Ralph said he didn’t want any presents. His mother must have known that was strange.  The next night it was pouring rain and Ralph’s mom suggested as they pulled up to a dark house that Harold's party must have been cancelled.  Ralph assured her they were in the back part of the house and ran through the rain to the front door and knocked.  When his buddy opened the door and let him in, Ralph’s mother drove off.  But the night’s adventures were just beginning. ​

Read More...
0 Comments

3/7/2021 0 Comments

Mama, You're Singing in the Cracks!

Picture
Randy told us the following story at our elders’ meeting. A young boy was sitting at the piano playing a well-known song when his mother came up behind him and started singing. The boy stopped playing and looked up at his mother and said, “Mama, you’re singing in the cracks!” The poor woman was off-key and the boy wanted her to know it.

Read More...
0 Comments

10/31/2020 1 Comment

Grace & Holiness

Picture
Meditation
James 2:18—But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. (ESV)

The faith versus deeds debate is a wrestle that transcends generations. Even so, I believe that in the wrestle of today’s culture, these verses could be reapplied as so: “But someone will say, “You have grace and I have holiness.” Show me your grace apart from your holiness, and I will show you my grace by my holiness.”


Read More...
1 Comment

9/30/2020 0 Comments

The Return

Picture
​Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, “It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” On April 30, 1863, Lincoln's National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer was observed.  Two days later, Lt. General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was mortally wounded in a freak accident where he was shot by his own troops.  The loss of this powerful Confederate leader changed the course of the war.[1]

Read More...
0 Comments

7/31/2020 0 Comments

I & II Samuel

Picture
If you want to read great books on leadership, read 1st and 2nd Samuel. Early tradition suggests that 1 and 2 Samuel were originally one book in scripture so I will do my best to examine the combined 55 chapters and share key leadership lessons.  No author is named for these books but scholars largely credit the prophets Samuel, Nathan and Gad. Based on 1 Sa. 27:6, the writing may not have been completed until about 930 B.C.[1]

Read More...
0 Comments

7/12/2018 0 Comments

Lost Phone

​Stephen and I finished a bike ride and run workout on the Air Force Academy.  We loaded our bikes on the back of the truck and headed home.  But when we got there I couldn’t find my cell phone. I quickly realized that I had placed it on the back of the truck by the license plate and drove off without securing it.  A hundred “O no!” thoughts flashed through my mind.  About to take off on an international trip to Africa, it would be a disaster not to have my phone.  While most of the phone memory was backed up on my computer, it would still be a major setback and financial hit to lose that stellar black piece of technology.

Read More...
0 Comments

1/3/2014 0 Comments

Troglodyte!

​Meditation
Revelation 3:2—Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before My God.
 

Read More...
0 Comments

5/15/2013 0 Comments

Behind Your Back

​Robert Lawless was born February 10, 1949 in Wheatland, Wyoming.  His parents abandoned him when he was six months old along with his 18 month-old sister and 3 year-old brother.  They were left in an apartment alone for two weeks and near death when Child Services found them.  After spending several weeks in a hospital a Nebraska family named Lawless adopted Bob and his brother.  He would never see his sister again.  His new parents moved them to Salem, Oregon and then they divorced.   At the age of fourteen, Bob went to live with an aunt and uncle.  As a teenager his life was full of wildness, jail time and repeated failures.  

Read More...
0 Comments

8/16/2010 0 Comments

Lenience

​Thank God we are not a heap of ashes!  1.  Do you know people who believe the Old Testament God is exceedingly harsh and not the same New Testament God?  2. Have you ever done something so bad there was just no way you thought God would forgive you?  3.  Do you know someone who has committed some disgusting sin and Christians will have nothing to do with that person despite his or her repentance?   

Read More...
0 Comments

4/2/2010

Weeping

Meditation
1 Samuel 20:41—When the young man had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone Ezel, fell with his face to the ground, and bowed three times.  Then he and Jonathan kissed each other and wept with each other, though David wept more.
​

Read More...

11/5/2009 0 Comments

Abaka

In 1931, a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place in Rwanda. Believers in several nations prayed for God to transform Rwandan lives. Consequently, men and women became deeply convicted of their wrongdoing and in true repentance humbled themselves confessing their sins. Those who had wronged others apologized and made restitution. At the center of Rwandan revival, new believers were called Abaka, which meant “those on fire.”[1] As A.C. Stanley Smith wrote in his book, Road to Revival, joy constantly reflected in the faces of these believers and everywhere they went they modeled powerful testimony.

Read More...
0 Comments

1/2/2004 0 Comments

New

​Two friends drug him down.  It started with watching mediocre movies and descended into pornography. Sambo felt miserable and tried to rationalize his actions against a brighter conscience.  He felt trapped until one night he listened to his father, Titus, preach a message he’d heard countless times.  On this evening in December of 1994, God’s Word pierced Sambo’s heart.  He felt the potent pull of the Holy Spirit.  Tears filled his eyes and plunged downward washing away built-up shame.  Later that night he repented of his sin and honestly asked Jesus to become His Lord and Savior.  Lingering guilt was replaced by enduring peace.  Love came and filled a 14-year-old boy in Trivandrum, India.  

Read More...
0 Comments

9/12/2002 0 Comments

Introspection--The Day After

  • The day after my mother died, her absence was deeply felt; I missed her, but I knew that I would see her again in a better place.  I understood and shared her faith.
  • The day after Gander, I wept for the loss of my best friend and the memories of 248 professional soldiers killed needlessly and mysteriously in a plane crash.  I struggled before God with their erasure. I pondered why I was not on that plane. 
  • The day after my son’s brain-stem tumor was discovered, a doctor’s foreboding prognosis echoed through my numb mind.  I breathed the air of helplessness and choked over dead dreams.
  • The day after September 11, I could not return to Oregon from Georgia.  There were no commercial flights in our land—an unprecedented grounding. I wondered if vulnerability and the pain of so many murdered would bring our land back to the God it ignored.  The pain of loss was again awakened.

Read More...
0 Comments

12/7/1999 0 Comments

Repentance

​When crocodiles cry, their tears are not like our tears at all.  A crocodile’s glandular excretions act to expel excess salt from its eyes.  When a man is remorseful but not repentant he acts like a crocodile.  He sheds tears but they are not from a true sense of shame over wrongdoing, but rather to put off the one aware of the sin.  Remorse is that sensation we experience when we are caught.  Repentance is the revulsion we taste for the evil in our lives. 

Read More...
0 Comments

2/15/1999 0 Comments

Vindication

​Jesus was the apotheosis of courage.  Imagine being perfect yet choosing to ignore the false charges of corrupt accusers! Jesus let His character be assassinated without defending Himself.  He accepted His own murder without the need to exact revenge. Instead, He entrusted Himself to His Father's hands--to be publicly humiliated by the very people He came to save.  If anyone had the right to call down forces from heaven it was Christ.  By thought alone He could have called out legions of angels.  They didn't have to pack duffel bags or get Anthrax shots before deploying!  No force on earth could have stopped them.  Yet, the Son of Man submitted to God's will. The Holy Spirit would come after to vindicate Him.  The pierced One rose to eternal glory. 

Read More...
0 Comments

<<Previous

    Categories

    All
    Abiding
    Ability
    Accountability
    Accusations
    Action
    Adaptable
    Adversity
    Advice
    Agreement
    Alert
    Alliance
    Ambition
    Angels
    Anger
    Anointing
    Arguing
    Aspiration
    Assumptions
    Attitude
    Authority
    Available
    Balance
    Baptism
    Belief
    Betrayal
    Bible
    Bitterness
    Blessings
    Blood
    Bold
    Boundaries
    Bribery
    Burn Out
    Busyness
    Calling
    Calm
    Care
    Causes
    Challenges
    Change
    Character
    Choices
    Christmas
    Comfort
    Commitment
    Communication
    Communion
    Community
    Comparison
    Compassion
    Complacency
    Complaining
    Compromise
    Concern
    Conduct
    Confession
    Confrontation
    Confusion
    Conscience
    Consent
    Considerate
    Contentment
    Context
    Corruption
    Courage
    Craving
    Creation
    Creativity
    Criticism
    Curiosity
    Dark
    Death
    Deception
    Decision Making
    Dedication
    Delay
    Deliverance
    Demons
    Depression
    Despair
    Discernment
    Discipleship
    Discipline
    Discouragement
    Dishonesty
    Disobedience
    Disrespect
    Divine Appointment
    Divisive
    Dogmatic
    Doubt
    Duty
    Easter
    Edify
    Empathy
    Encouragement
    Endurance
    Envy
    Eternity
    Ethics
    Evangelism
    Evolution
    Example
    Excuses
    Experience
    Failure
    Faith
    Faithful
    Fasting
    Fathers
    Favor
    Fear
    Feedback
    Fellowship
    Flesh
    Focus
    Follow
    Foolishness
    Forgiveness
    Freedom
    Friendly
    Friendship
    Fruit
    Gentle
    Giving
    Glory
    Goals
    God
    God Fearing
    Godly
    Gods Love
    Gods Promises
    Good Friday
    Gossip
    Government
    Grace
    Grumbling
    Guidance
    Habit
    Happiness
    Healing
    Healthy
    Heart
    Heaven
    Hell
    Help
    Heresy
    Heroism
    History
    Holidays
    Holiness
    Holy Spirit
    Honor
    Hope
    Humility
    Hypocrisy
    Idolatry
    Image
    Immorality
    Incompetent
    Inconsistent
    Ingratitude
    Inheritance
    Initiative
    Insecurity
    Inspiration
    Integrity
    Interference
    Isolation
    Israel
    Jealousy
    Jesus
    Joy
    Judgment
    Justice
    Justification
    Kindness
    Knowledge
    Language
    Laughter
    Law
    Lazy
    Leadership
    Learning
    Legalism
    Life
    Light
    Listening
    Lonely
    Love
    Loyalty
    Lying
    Marriage
    Meaning
    Meditation
    Memorial
    Mentor
    Mercy
    Mind
    Ministry
    Miracles
    Money
    Music
    Name
    Obedient
    Observation
    Opportunity
    Opposition
    Pain
    Parables
    Parenting
    Passion
    Patience
    Peace
    Perseverance
    Philosophies
    Plan
    Poem
    Possessions
    Power
    Praise
    Prayer
    Prayer For Leaders
    Prejudice
    Preparation
    Pride
    Priorities
    Profiles
    Promises
    Protection
    Providence
    Provision
    Prudence
    Psalms
    Punishment
    Purpose
    Questions
    Rebellious
    Recognition
    Reconcilation
    Redemption
    Relativism
    Relevance
    Religion
    Repentance
    Repetition
    Reputation
    Respect
    Responsible
    Rest
    Restoration
    Revenge
    Revival
    Reward
    Righteous
    Role
    Sacrifice
    Safety
    Salvation
    Satan
    Security
    Selection
    Self
    Sensitive
    Serving
    Sickness
    Silence
    Sin
    Sincerity
    Sorrow
    Soul
    Speech
    Spiritual Disciplines
    Spiritual Gifts
    Spiritual Growth
    Spiritual Warfare
    Status
    Stewardship
    Strategy
    Strengths
    Stress
    Stubborn
    Submission
    Success
    Suffering
    Suicide
    Teaching
    Team
    Temptation
    Testimony
    Testing
    Thankful
    Theology
    Thinking
    Thoughtful
    Time
    Tradition
    Training
    Travel
    Trinity
    Trouble
    Trust
    Truth
    Understanding
    Unequal
    Unity
    Values
    Victory
    Virtue
    Vision
    Warning
    Weakness
    Will
    Wisdom
    Witness
    Work
    Worry
    Worship
    Youth
    Zeal

Picture

Contacts

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Photo used under Creative Commons from Rachel Maxey Miles