By pastorbillwalden
Joel 2:25 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.” 
There are years in South Africa when locusts swarm the land and eat the crops. They come in hordes, blocking out the sun. The crops are lost and a hard winter follows. The “years that the locusts eat” are feared and dreaded.
But the year after the locusts, South Africa reaps its greatest crops, for the dead bodies of the locusts serve as fertilizer for the new seed. And the locust year is restored as great crops swell the land.
This is a parable of our lives. There are seasons of deep distress and afflictions that sometimes eat all the usefulness of our lives away. Yet, the promise is that God will restore those locust years if we endure. We will reap if we faint not. Although now we do not know all the ‘whys’, we can be assured our times are in His hands.
—Ron Hembree in, Fruits of the Spirit, (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1969).
By pastorbillwalden
Most marriages will go through times that leave a husband feeling bored with his wife, or vice versa. 
Even the best marriages can experience this.
Proverbs 27:20 Hell and Destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied.
The eyes, the flesh, and the desires of man are never satisfied, or, in other words, the nature of man always wants continual gratification. If a man is focused only on self gratification, he will grow bored with his wife, and begin to see only her problems, flaws, and weaknesses. He will compare her to other women, thinking that he would be better off with someone else. His heart will wander, his thoughts will wander, and his actions may follow.
The Christian man has a clear and high calling regarding his relationship with and responsibility to his wife.
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her…
The Christian husband is called to understand the supreme example of husband-hood in the relationship between Jesus and His church. Jesus is the example of how husbands are to pursue loving their wives.
If Jesus is the example of the perfect Husband, then that means that every Christian is Jesus’ bride, regardless of gender. A Christian man needs to see himself first as the Bride of Christ before he can rightly see himself as the husband to his wife.
If Jesus is the perfect example of what the Husband does for his wife, then we need to consider all that Jesus does for His Bride, the Church. Consider John 10:10 as it applies to Jesus and His Bride.
John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Jesus came to give abundant life to His Church, His Bride. That means super exceeding, beyond the norm, abounding, rich, full life. Abundant life is living life to the full. Not in the realm that the world suggests, with more possessions, more relationships, etc. Jesus came to give us a spiritual life that brings abundance and richness to living. Abundant Life is the exact opposite of boring life. Jesus lived the Abundant Life, and He seeks to bring us into that Life.
So what are the applications for husbands who are feeling that they are stuck in a boring marriage?
If you are a Christian husband, are you living the Abundant Life, or even seeking it? Jesus said He came that you might have it. Abundant Living starts with you, and will never leave you bored. Seek after it. Do it with great determination and purpose.
If you are a Christian husband, and feel that you are in a boring marriage, don’t believe the lies of the world and Satan that suggest you ought to spice up your marriage with some drink or smoke, with some X rated films, or some flirting with another woman. That is what the Thief says. He comes to kill, steal, and destroy. How many marriages have actually gotten better and more godly through smoke, drink, pornography, flirting, gambling, etc? None. Zero.
If you are a Christian husband who feels your marriage is boring, how much are you seeking Jesus? Jesus seeks to bring YOU Abundant Life, and you often don’t or haven’t gone along with His idea, but he has never given up on you.
Christian husband: it is your responsibility to seek the Abundant Life first for yourself, and then bring it to your wife. Maybe your wife is boring or bored because of years of you neglecting her. The joy of living has been drained out of her by your selfishness. Seek Abundant Life in Jesus, and then bring your wife along. Neither of you will be bored.
Be a godly man. Draw close to God through His word, through prayer, through serving others. Seek to bless your wife instead of complaining about how boring she is and finding fault with her. If she is boring to you, it is because you have not spiritually led her to Abundant Life in Christ.
If your wife is boring to you, is very well may be a result of you not investing your life into her. Husbands often make their wives into something other than what Jesus wants, and then they complain about it.
Christian husband: Man up. Seek Jesus. Walk in the Abundant Life, and take your wife with you. There is Abundant Marriage to be discovered and enjoyed.
By pastorbillwalden
Mine is to seek, obey, believe, follow. Mine is to read, understand, pray, guard my life.
His is to reveal, command, direct, lead. His is to impart, teach, respond, and keep me.
He initiates, and I respond. He initiates more, and I respond more.
My part is to be aggressively passive. His part is to be aggressively active.
I am His son, and He is my Father.
By pastorbillwalden
Many of the Psalms of David are lamentations and confessions. Songs of repentance, sorrow over sin, and recommitment. This song was written during “one of those seasons”. From our Cornerstone worship cd, a few years back. Click here. 
Psalm 51:1-13
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,and sinners will turn back to you.
By pastorbillwalden
Podcast: Play in new window
| Download
By pastorbillwalden
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.
–Psalm 145:3
The dictionary says that to admire is “to regard with wondering esteem accompanied by pleasure and delight; to look at or upon with an elevated feeling of pleasure.” According to this definition, God has few admirers among Christians today.
Many are they who are grateful for His goodness in providing salvation. At Thanksgiving time the churches ring with songs of gratitude that “all is safely gathered in.” Testimony meetings are mostly devoted to recitations of incidents where someone got into trouble and got out again in answer to prayer. To decry this would be uncharitable and unscriptural, for there is much of the same thing in the Book of Psalms. It is good and right to render unto God thanksgiving for all His mercies to us. But God’s admirers, where are they?
The simple truth is that worship is elementary until it begins to take on the quality of admiration. Just as long as the worshiper is engrossed with himself and his good fortune, he is a babe. We begin to grow up when our worship passes from thanksgiving to admiration. As our hearts rise to God in lofty esteem for that which He is (“I AM THAT I AM”), we begin to share a little of the selfless pleasure which is the portion of the blessed in heaven.
That Incredible Christian, 127.
By pastorbillwalden
The church at Ephesus faced more cultural, social, and spiritual changes than we do. Slavery existed, gladiators were killed for entertainment, idolatry was rampant, and the opposition against Christianity was strong. 
In the face of all that, Paul the Apostle told the Ephesian Christians to “walk worthy of the calling with which they were called”. (Ephesians 4:1)
Simply put: Be the Christian that you are.
The Ephesians were to impact their world first and foremost by living for Christ.
Whatever else they would do would be the fruit of walking with Christ.
The Church needs to remember that we are not called to react emotionally and try to fix our culture.
God is more concerned about our culture than we are, and His plans are better than ours.
May whatever changes take place through our lives be a result of our steady faith in Jesus.
Paul was a…
1. Conduit Of Comfort
2. Conduit of Confidence
3. Conduit Of Christ.
Click here to read the notes and hear the sermon.
Click on “The Conduit Church”.
Blessings…
By pastorbillwalden
John 1:6, 7 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 
“There was a man sent from God…”- God chooses people to do His work. Be looking & listening about how God wants to send you.
“…whose name was John.” – God uses specific people. When we think of God using people, we think abstractly about “someone out there”. Make it about you being available to be used of God.
“This man came…”- John was sent, and he came. He responded. Respond. It’s not enough to ask to be used, or acknowledge that you believe God is calling you. You must respond.
“…for a witness, to bear witness of the Light…”. John’s job wasn’t to end slavery in the Roman empire. It wasn’t to reform Judaism. He was sent to bear witness. To speak about that which he knew. He was called to point people to Jesus. Whatever other “call” a Christian may have, every one of has been called to speak about that which we know to be true re. Jesus.
“…that all through him might believe.”- This is the greatest thing that can happen. Every other result of our lives is secondary in eternal significance. The church isn’t called to end abortion, “re-Christianize” America, win elections, or stop gay marriage. Whatever good social, ethical and spiritual goals we may support, they are all secondary to people believing in Jesus.
“There was a (wo)man, sent from God, whose name was_________.
By pastorbillwalden
It has been said that the church is a hospital. A place where hurting people go to be healed up by God and His people. A place where the wounded can go and not be expected to do much. In part, I agree with that concept. Church should be a place where the wounded can go and experience healing.
But is church “just” a hospital.
Think about your last visit to a hospital. You went to be taken care of. You expected people to do things for you. If they didn’t help you get better, you got frustrated, because it’s their job to “make you better”.
If they were successful, and you felt better, you left. In fact, you probably couldn’t wait to leave. You didn’t stay to involve yourself with other patients. You didn’t consider the needs of the caregivers, staff, doctors, or nurses. You got better, and then you left.
A church is a hospital, but it is much more. It is a family, a community, a body. If people come to be healed, then good, they should. But if, when they have become healthy (God knows when that is) and then they decide that “their felt needs” have been met, and then they leave, then they have missed much of what Church is designed by God to be. They have gone from being a patient to a consumer. They have gone from being needy to being self focused, or at least ignorant that there are other patients that could use their help.
It is true that one church might help bring healing to someone, who God then directs to serve somewhere else. That person sees the Church as more than a hospital. That’s good.
I am sympathetic to people’s needs for healing. But I know that the Church is designed by God to be much more than a hospital. It is designed to be a family.
Being a patient means you receive. Being a family member means you give. Let’s not do the first and neglect the second.
By pastorbillwalden
“R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Take care, TCB”- Aretha Franklin. 
Almost every Sunday, at the end of our corporate gathering, we have a question & answer time about the message I gave, or about the Christian faith in general.
This week, someone asked: “What is ‘respect’, and what does it look like?”
There are a few different Greek words used in the New Testament that are translated into our English word “Respect”.
Ephesians 5:33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
In this verse, the Greek word is phobeo.
Phobeo- “to fear, to be afraid of, to reverence, to venerate, to treat with deference or reverential obedience.” Expositors defines: “fear in the sense of reverence, spontaneous, obedient regard.”
(Wuest, Kenneth S.: Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament : For the English Reader. Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, 1997, c1984, S. Eph 5:32)
Read more »
