Help For Your Daily Walk

There is a scripture in Exodus 6 that is such an encouraging message to the Israelites and to us as well. As you read this, notice how many times God says, “I WILL”. He was assuring His people that He was and is totally there for them. Read this scripture and relate it to this day and time and any oppression or trouble that you are facing. God WILL free you and help you. Believe and trust in His son Jesus. Exodus 6:6-8 NLT "Therefore, say to the people of Israel: 'I am the LO

What an important topic, yet one that is not understood like it should be. Depending on when you grew up and how you were raised, the value you place on you and your status in life is determined. Meaning it either makes you better or it causes you to carry on with wrong decisions. Do you make decisions that cause you to get in debt up to your eyeballs because you are determined that you will not live in poverty or the appearance of poverty? On the other hand, are your decisio

When a person goes through “deep waters” it is a time of chaos, confusion and uncertainty. For instance. when Moses led the Israelites THROUGH the Red Sea, there was surely chaos, confusion and uncertainty. But what they found in the middle of that “deep water” was provision and safety. God did not abandon them in the middle of their storm … quite the opposite. He will not abandon you. And if you are in a right relationship with Him, it is almost as if you hear him whisper, “

Looking at this picture of my family, I feel so many emotions. This family started with those two Kewanee, MO sweethearts, Willie and Helen. They soon added Larry then Sondra. When dad returned from the war Linda, Jimmie and then Paula quickly made their appearance. A sweet family of 7. We are now down to two of us … me and Sondra. It’s sometimes difficult to believe we are all that is left of the original “Tollison family” that sang and served in area churches. So many loved

It is so difficult to ignore what you perceive others are thinking about you. But, if you don’t learn to see those feelings as a means to trip you up and make you appear “useless”, you are gonna have a hard time. Perception is a funny thing. It can seem so real that you think it must be true. But most times it is only your mind giving you false signals. I want you to realize that regardless of what others think or what you perceive that they think, doesn’t really matter. You

Has there ever been a time in your life where you stumbled and messed up big time? Those are the times when you begin to feel unloved and dispensable to others. We know God loves us, but we’ve strayed so far from His perfect will for our lives, we are just downright sad and tired. If you have ever been down that road, you know what I’m talking about. God is love and loves us with an “everlasting love”. It doesn’t give up on ANYONE. That includes you in your stubbornness OR yo

Love transforms us from being all about our own needs into someone that focuses in on what brings happiness to other people … which in turn makes us happy too. This can require some self-inflection as to how you spend your time. Is it all about you or … Have you allowed love to transform you into the best version of yourself? Love is truly what makes a nobody a somebody. Everything else is just noise. - “if I don’t have love, I am only a noisy bell or a ringing cymbal”. Talk

An article from Forbes magazine titled, “Communication's Biggest Secret: Knowing When To Keep Your Mouth Closed”, the author says, “the greatest business lessons I’ve learned have occurred during the times that my own mouth was shut.” Learning the skill of listening instead of talking, can have a profound impact on you. Many times, your “two cents” is not needed in the scheme of the conversation. Adding in unnecessary or unwanted comments can just complicate the situation. Ta

Why is it so many settle instead of achieving? They give up on the best because it just seems too hard to achieve. For many it starts all the way back in elementary school. On the back of the report card the teacher writes, “A smart child, but just doesn’t work to their capability.” Learned habits start early in life. A parent has to take the time to teach those good habits and encourage them in their kids. Paul was doing that to the Philippians (his spiritual kids) in today’

My home … the Maupin Cottage. It is where I live, but if the folks in it (me and Bobby) do not base all we do on our love for God and His love for us, that cottage could become a house where we just sleep and eat. We don’t want that in our home and refuse to have less than God’s best I’m not saying that everything we have done has been neat and pretty. But we are two people that have sinned, found forgiveness and are striving to do the right things at this time of our lives.

When you become a follower of Christ, things begin to change. Your viewpoint (the way you look at life) changes. You begin to see things in light of how God sees them (which is fantastic). As a few of the words to the song states, “A whole new world A new fantastic point of view” Old things that used to keep your attention are gone and replaced by peace that passes all understanding. We are then to be God’s ambassadors by sharing this with others so they too can have that pea

Those two words can make a huge difference in your life. They should never be said flippantly or without feeling. But when you sincerely say those words from your heart, the person with whom you want a close relationship, can tell. It can bring them to a point of seeing their part in what has happened as well. There is no room for being stubborn, if you truly want things to run smoothly in your relationships. You must be genuine with your accountability … taking into account

Take time to explore all of Psalm 139. It is chock-full of how much the Lord is aware of your existence and what you need in your life. It starts out by saying, “He knows everything about you.” Well, that’s good to know from the very start. No need to try and hide anything from Him (which is impossible anyway). Verse 8 gives it to you straight up … “If I go up to heaven, you’re there! If I go down to the realm of the dead, you’re there too!” That covers a lot of territory. Th

By all human standards, there are things that can seem impossible to achieve by those without faith. Logically you have no basis to expect the outcome you are believing God for in your life. But as Christians, we don’t rely on happenstance or logic to guide us. The piece that many miss is FAITH. Your faith is the KEY that opens doors many miss. Believing and faith go together and form the link in our life-chain that holds everything together. Today’s verse explains it in this

Today’s verse comes from a prayer that Paul was praying for the folks at Ephesus. All of that prayer is in verses 14-21. I want to focus on verse 19 and help us get a glimpse into that love of Christ that has “made His home in our hearts”. Did you catch that? Christ has made his home in the hearts of believers. Don’t you just love that? When you feel at home with a friend, there is a difference in how you experience stuff. The friendship is so strong between you two that your

Sometimes we just need to remind ourselves of what we have because of our relationship with the Lord. Here is a verse and chorus from “Victory is Mine” to do that for you today. “When I rose up this morning I didn't have a doubt I knew that the Lord would bring me out I fell on my knees Said, "Lord, help me please" Got up singing and shouting victory” “Victory is mine, victory is mine Victory today is mine I told Satan to get thee behind Victory today is mine” Whatever is hap

There is an old hymn called, “The Light of the World is Jesus”. In today’s verse Jesus says to those around Him and to us, “YOU are the light of the world”. We carry His light. In Matthew 5, Jesus sat down with His disciples to teach them. I love how He wanted to be sure they knew the things that would help them; just as He wants that for us today. He took the time to impart and be that teaching light for them. He was enlightening them on the things that bring blessing. Then

To continue with our “love” theme today, let’s talk about loving God and country. Notice which is mentioned first in today’s picture … the love of God. We must never get those reversed. They are both important, but without God’s love as our foundation and guide, things can get all cattywampus. Our founding fathers needed the direction of scripture in the very beginning and our leaders continue to need that today. Part of that is on us to pray for our leaders more than we crit

Tomorrow people all over the world will celebrate a day that is focused on LOVE. It is a day of showing those we care about a little more grace sprinkled with a lot more patience and respect. What if… Every day was a day focused on love, respect and patience. It is so easy to get caught up in the everyday things in life that relationships can become mundane. We begin to “expect” our significant other to just to take whatever we decide to dish out. (And that most times is self

Our television is inundated by so many things that chip away at our sense of safety. There are abductions, murders, riots, churches threatened, threats of violence on every turn and add into that the programming we CHOOSE to watch with all the above and we have a recipe for fear for our own safety. Many years ago, for a short time (not anymore) Bobby and I watched a show called “Criminal Minds” that caused us to see things differently. On a trip, we would see a person on the