This morning I want to share with you the vision I am sharing with my own congregation at the Vineyard Church of Pine Haven. We are a small town church in a community of 500 in rural Wyoming. Our building will seat 100 people. Yet I believe that God is calling even us, a small church in a sparsely populated area to be a church without borders.

A little over 2000 years ago, a small gathering of believers was given a commission to be the church without borders. In the book of Acts chapter 1 we see this commission.

Acts 1:8 FULL POST

Recently I came across a video blog by Phil Strout talking about qualities found in successful leaders. In those videos I found some principles that I have always believed concerning vision. So I wanted to pass along to you those biblical insights about vision so you too can implement these principles in your life and ministry.

The book of Proverbs states in chapter 29 this statement.

Proverbs 29:18

18 Where there is no vision, the people perish:

Now I could go on and on about how people need vision and that leaders need to instill vision but in all honesty most of the time it is not that people don't have vision but that they are not empowered to carry out their vision. So this article is about the biblical insights about vision that I have learned over the last 33 years of being a believer in Jesus.

INSIGHT #1 - EMPOWER OTHERS AND YOU WILL BE EMPOWERED

Early in my ministry I was very bad about getting a vision and then chasing after it only to realize that I was not leading anyone else behind me. Everyone was standing back where I started looking at me and question where the heck I was going. The problem was that although I had a vision, I had not set the stage to be able to ask others to help me accomplish that vision. FULL POST

This week at my church I won't be sharing a traditional Mother's Day sermon but instead will be sharing a message about the God who comforts as a mother who comforts her child. Often times we place upon God attributes that show severity and rigidness. However I would like to show you the God who is willing to comfort us as a mother comforts her child. So let me start by sharing with you a verse out of the book of Isaiah chapter 66 and verse 13.

GOD COMFORTS LIKE A MOTHER

Isaiah 66:13

I will comfort you there in Jerusalem
as a mother comforts her child.”

Mothers are very special people. No one has more hopes, dreams, ambitions, and love for a child the way that a mother does. She watches over her child and hurts when they hurt. In my own life, my mother has been there to encourage and comfort me many times when life has thrown me a curveball. Many times in fact she has been there before I even let her know that I was struggling. She has had a sixth sense about such things. FULL POST

I am the first to admit that I am an imperfect leader. I am an imperfect church member. I am an imperfect man. There have been times in my life where I have done or allowed some pretty dumb things in my life. So when I talk about codependent tendencies between church leaders and church members, I am not trying to raise myself up on a pedestal by pointing out the flaws of other. I am trying to bring to light something that I have both wrestled with personally and seen operating within some churches in the hopes that by doing so, it will bring a greater degree of health and fruitfulness to leaders and church members.

There is a difference between codependency and interdependency. The Bible teaches that we are to be interdependent upon one another. Unfortunately because we do not live in a perfect world and because of some of the baggage we carry around, interdependency is replaced with codependency. So let's look at the definition of codependency, look at ways it manifests itself between church leaders and church members, and ways to break the cycle of codependency. FULL POST

Have you ever struggled with doubts and unbelief? Have you ever felt bad because you had thoughts that something was impossible? Have you felt condemned because others told you that if you had doubts, God would not answer your prayer? I think we all have had at one time a struggle with unbelief and we have prayed the same prayer that the man who had a demon possessed son prayed in Mark 9:24.

THE "HELP MY UNBELIEF" SCRIPTURE

Mark 9:24
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

The Christian faith is not a faith that goes by what we see or what we feel. It is a journey with Jesus Christ along the entire path of our life. It is a relationship not a formula and as such, struggling with unbelief is part of that journey and relationship. So let me try to encourage you today as you are working through that struggle, that your honesty and transparency will be what actually gets you over your unbelief and onto a path that just knows that God will do what He says. FULL POST

If you are around Christians any length of time at all, you will hear them say that they feel "called" by God to do something. They may say that they are trying to discern the call of God on their life, or they may say that they are answering God's call, or even say they are called to ministry. Hopefully I will be able to answer for you what is the call of God and whether or not you are experiencing this very real phenomenon.

WHERE DO WE GET THE TERM "CALL OF GOD"?

The concept of being called comes from the life of Samuel and his experience with God's calling. It can be found in 1 Samuel chapter 3.

The Lord Calls Samuel

1 Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.

2 One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle near the Ark of God. FULL POST

With our morals and values being challenged at every corner in today's world, I thought a study on what the Bible says about profanity would be in order. I will be the first one to admit that when I first got saved, and at a couple of other times in my life, I allowed myself to have quite the potty mouth. So my intent with this post is not to point fingers at those who do not have very good control over their tongue, but instead to give you a reasoned approach to the question of cursing and the biblical mandates concerning our speech. So we will look at 3 things. We will look at what it means to take the Lord's name in vain, look at other types of corrupt communication, and finally look at the habitual use of profanity and it's effect on how other people view you.

USING THE LORD'S NAME IN VAIN

Exodus 20:7
"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. FULL POST

This is part of a series I have done at my church in Pine Haven and published on my website Taber's Truths

In Galatians 6, Paul finishes his letter with a principle that many have quoted but in all honesty, few apply in it's proper application. Many try to teach that it has to do with money or physical things, however that is the least of the applications of this passage. So let's take a look at what Paul is trying to get across to the Galatian church and how we can apply it to our lives.

THE REAP WHAT YOU SOW BIBLE VERSE

Galatians 6:1-10 (NLT)

1 Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. 2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. 3 If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. 4 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else. 5 For we are each responsible for our own conduct. FULL POST

I put together this list of Bible verses about comfort because it is my desire and heart that this blog and my other websites would be a place where people could come and receive healing for the hurts that they have received. Having gone through some severe tragedies myself in the last 50 years, I have a heart to see people made whole. This list of Bible verses about comfort is broken down into 3 parts. The words of Kind David, The words of the Apostle Paul, and the words of the "Word of God" himself, Jesus Christ. I hope that you will find the comfort you are seeking in these pages. God is not done with you. He will heal and comfort your broken heart.

Bible Verses About Comfort from David, Paul and Jesus

SCRIPTURE VERSES ABOUT COMFORT FROM KING DAVID.

 Psalm 23:4

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. FULL POST

I have just got done investigating one of the most insidious and malicious scams I have seen to date on the internet. The scammers are the owners of www.christianprayercenter.com. It is a website that advertises heavily using Google AdWords. They say that millions of Christian will pray for you worldwide. They also claim to have miracle prayer requests answered.

The only reason I stumbled upon this scam is because of a person reporting them to me on Christian Faithbook. They clicked on the ad in order to place a prayer request. After signing up, and filling out all the forms to place their ad, they were asked for a donation. Now I do not have a problem with people donating to a website. That is not the issue. The issue is that they did not give an option for not giving a donation and when they tried to post their prayer request without giving a donation, the prayer request was denied! So what you have is people charging you for prayer! FULL POST