My wife and I served as evangelical, protestant missionaries in France for eleven and a half years, after which I became the pastor and director of a Christian school in a French-speaking evangelical church, L'Eglise Evangelique de Saint Jerome, in Quebec, Canada. After serving in Quebec for five years, we then moved to Greenville, South Carolina, where I became the pastor of the First Evangelical Church of Greenville. In 1995, we moved to Tallahassee, Florida, where I eventually assumed the management of the family business, and remained there until 2012, when our family moved to Meridian, Idaho. My wife and I have six children. These short devotionals are born out of the loss of one of these children in particular, with the hope and prayer that they will serve to encourage and inspire those who read them in their walk with Christ. God bless you all, and may we finish well the race set before us.
Dear Ones: Faith requires strength and courage. In the first chapters of the book of Revelation, Christ addresses the individual churches in Asia Minor. “To him that overcometh” is a phrase He uses repeatedly. There are many enemies to faith. Not only do we live in an atmosphere of unbelief but we are faced with…
Dear Ones: Francis Ridley Havergal wrote in the sixth stanza of the hymn “Jesus, Thy Life is Mine“: “Jesus, my life is Thine, And evermore shalt be, Hidden in Thee, For nothing can untwine, Thy life from mine.” Let us today, by faith, lay hold of the wonderful truth of our inseparable union with Christ.…
Dear Ones: In Handley Moule‘s “A Morning Act of Faith and Devotion,” he begins by writing: “I believe on the Son of God, therefore, I am in Him, having redemption through His blood, and life by His Spirit.” Moule begins his day by taking a stand of faith. He has understood that this is the…
Dear Ones: A most beautiful word that is rarely used in our vocabulary is the word “unblameable.” (Colossians 1:22) The reason it is rarely used is simple; there are very few who even come close to having lives of which this is true. In the kingdom of God and in heaven this word is very significant…
Dear Ones: Paul Gerhardt wrote the following (“Till He Come”): “Midst the darkness, storm and sorrow, One bright gleam I see; Well I know the blessed morrow Christ will come for me. ‘Midst the light, and peace, and glory Of the Father’s home, Christ for me is waiting, watching, Waiting till I come.” Jesus said…
Dear Ones: Frederick Faber wrote in his hymn “My God, How Wonderful Thou Art” about God as the Father: “No earthly father loves like Thee, No mother e’er so mild Bears and forbears as Thou hast done With me, Thy sinful child.” One of the most wonderful of all the descriptions of God is as…
Dear Ones: “And there was a famine in the land…” (Genesis 26:1) In the will of God we will face trials. Here we read of Isaac during this time of famine. God instructed him to NOT go down to Egypt but to go to Gerar, and to live among the Philistines. Gerar would prove to…
Dear Ones: In A.L. Waring‘s great hymn, “In Heavenly Love Abiding,” she writes: “In heavenly love abiding, NO CHANGE my heart shall fear; For safe is such confiding, For nothing changes here.” It is a great day when we come to grips with the changeless Christ in the midst of ever changing circumstances. It is a wonderful…
Dear Ones: WE ARE WHAT WE CHOOSE TO BE. In Charles Wesley‘s great hymn, “Soldiers of Christ Arise,” we read: “Soldiers of Christ, arise, And put your armor on, Strong in the strength which God supplies, Through His eternal Son; Strong in the Lord of Hosts, And in His mighty power, Who in the strength…
(Read Part I) Dear Ones: I will try and give a definition of the sovereignty of God. God, The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, existing before all of creation or the beginning of time, is all powerful, all knowing, always purposeful, and always working all things towards His designed objective: the revelation of His glory,…