By Ryan Kelly –

Feel-good preachers seem to be a dime-a-dozen in today’s world. And it’s not hard to figure out why. Telling people about God’s love and His plan for us is an easy thing to tell people, and it is certainly uplifting and encouraging. No question about it, and it is all completely true and good in and of itself.

However, not only is God fully-loving, but He is also fully righteous and fully just. God is perfect, and we must be made perfect in order to stand in His presence in Heaven. And of course, this is impossible for us without the saving grace of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice to forgive us of our sin. We are made perfect in Him.

Through Jesus and the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we should have an absolute repulsion to sin. We may be tempted, but any sin that we commit should be a bitter taste in our mouths and heartache to our soul. We should hate sin as God hates sin.

But what happens when we do sin? These two verses explain it well.

James 5:16: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Jesus has made us perfect in the eyes of God, but we are still on the path of righteousness (growing closer to God) while here on this Earth. This means that we are still flawed and can fall to temptation. When we do, God is quick to forgive us through Christ, and He can and will cleanse us and empower us to reject sin at the next turn.

We must never tolerate sin in our lives, but rather we must fight temptation and stand firm as a radiant reflection of the light and love of Jesus in this world. Let’s strive to be as perfect as the image that Jesus has created us to be. If you fall short, you are forgiven, but use each failure as an opportunity to do better the next time. It is a small gift that we can give back to our Savior who died for us all.

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

Fall is in the air.  The colors are changing everywhere.  You can see the beauty of God’s handiwork all around you, if only you pay attention.

My family and I recently enjoyed a brief visit to the Smoky Mountains and did a little exploring in an area we love called Cades Cove.  It was a beautiful October morning as we made the trek in our car along the park’s one lane eleven-mile-long circle.  Besides the countless vehicles, we also saw a great number of large turkeys, several deer, and a few black bears.

Animals are especially fun to watch.  Perhaps that’s why my Dad’s mother loved to sit on a bench in the mall and observe the people as they passed by.  (ha!)  The park was very busy that day, and our eleven-mile route took us very nearly two hours to complete.  So many other folks were also interested in spotting the animals and/or the colors of the changing leaves.

But as we left the park, we turned off the pavement and took advantage of a cut-off road which you see here.  There were no other cars but ours there.  We saw no four-legged animals, but we also saw no two-legged ones either.  Only the beauty of God.  I will never cease to be amazed at the beauty of the mountains, the open fields and pasture lands, the trees, and the simplicity of a dirt road.

We only saw this particular view because we turned off of the main path.  We only had this advantage because we took the simpler route.  We only experienced the quiet solitude because we left the crowds behind — and took a dirt road.

My Dad grew up on a dirt road, and my memories of visiting relatives down that road are still vivid in my mind.  Each memory brings with it the rising dust of the road.  My wife grew up on a dirt road.  We now live just off our neighbor’s long gravel drive.  I can’t explain it, even in my own mind, but there is just something about the simplicity of the dirt road that brings things back into perspective for me.  Maybe it’s just the symbolism of the settling dust once the traffic has passed.

As the craziness of the world passes you by this week, stirring up the dust and dirt that always come with it, hold tight.  For just beyond the busy thoroughfare of this week’s world is that wonderful settling feeling of the long lone dirt road and the Godly scenery that He provides with it.

Settle in for a great ride with the Lord this week.  The views are out of this world!

Just a thought.

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

One question to begin – Do you ever feel as if you are an outsider looking in on what’s going on around you?

Many of you may not believe me when I tell you this, but by nature I am very introverted.  I very much enjoy loving on people and having the relationships I have and going the places I go.  However, my comfort zone is simply a party with me, myself, and I in a quiet place anywhere.  I work very hard at being outgoing and a people-person.  But it sometimes seems so much easier to simply step back and watch from a distance.

Look through the window panes in my picture.  You will certainly notice the large desk and the other furniture.  You may also pick up on some of the smaller details of the space.  A keen eye may be able to deduce that this is the “Oval Office” of the White House.

Now, before I get accused of climbing the fence, crawling across the lawn, and hiding in the bushes outside the President’s office space in Washington, D.C., let me tell you this.  I was actually standing in a hallway of the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan.  A full scale replica of the Presidential office was just beyond that window, and moving just a few feet to the right, the walls disappeared, and I actually stood in the space, taking it all in.

Had I remained outside that window, all I would have seen is what you are now seeing in this photograph.  But because I stepped out beyond that space, I was able to be present in it all, take it all in, enjoy several moments of looking around the room, and leave with a sense that I had visited an important place, albeit a replica of the real office.

That may seem like a simple example of the point I’m trying to make, but for those who find it difficult to brave the crowds, it becomes difficult to interact with people, which is the very thing a Christian must do in order to speak the Gospel truth to the masses.

What I’m asking you to do this week is to look beyond your space.  Look beyond the limited, the uncomfortable, the moment in which you currently reside, and see how exciting the world can be as you step out, view it with all the awe and wonder of a faith-filled child, and then share your experiences with anyone who will listen (or read the words you write)!

May we all be led to brave our fears and share our findings with a world that so desperately needs to hear about Jesus this week!

Just a thought.

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

From time to time, I share with you a picture of some church building somewhere.  Different sizes, different denominations, reaching different people.  Here’s another church picture.  I would like you to take a good look at it and notice some of the details.

My wife and I were in the beautiful state of Michigan recently for a conference she was attending in Grand Rapids.  Our rental car we had been assigned at the airport was indeed helpful, as we had places we wanted to visit on each side of the state.  But when we arrived for her meeting, I parked the car in the downtown garage and left it there.  From our twenty-fifth floor hotel room overlooking the river and a large portion of downtown, we could see for miles.  I picked out at least four church steeples in the distance.

One cool morning, I started out walking toward the three that seemed to be the nearest each other in the distance.  A mile or two later, I reached the first one.  It was large and grand, about the size of the one you see here.  I took a couple of pictures, climbed the grand steps on the front of the church building and tried all three of the doors.  All locked.  No one around.  A little disappointed, off I trodded again.

Some minutes later, I walked up to a very large and beautiful Catholic church with statuary and gorgeous flower gardens.  Again finding the front doors locked, I was turning to leave when a couple who was arriving for a Bible class in the church basement offered to show me where the unlocked side door was, and in I walked to the marble-floored cathedral-like sanctuary.  Although those nice people were kind and welcoming, and although the bright sunlight shone beautifully through the very large stained-glass windows, all of the electric lighting was turned off, and corners of that grand space were dark and very uninviting.

I had a longer distance to walk before finally coming up to the third church building, the last steeple I had seen in the distance, but I headed directly toward it, stopped by a long-haired young man looking for a local park.  He startled me as he called out to me, a stranger in a strange city, for directions to a park I didn’t know existed.  And he apologized for causing me concern, strolling off happily no wiser than before we had met at the street corner.

Just around that next storefront, to the back, I walked up to this building, and this is where I stopped.  The lawn was overgrown.  Now that I was closer, I could tell it had been abandoned.  The church name longer on the brick sign, there was now a large “For Sale” sign looming at the curb side.  Deserted, dark, abandoned.

Three churches that day I visited.  Several locked doors.  But I only needed the one that was open.  Two kind and welcoming people.  Two others who startled each other.  Bright lights and beautiful windows.  Dark corners and overgrown property.  Each church building had a story to tell.  I pray it was the right Story.

I am so very thankful that as I wander the streets of my life, the Good Lord above is not surprised by when I show up.  His doors (His arms) are always open wide.  He is always welcoming, and although I may be startled when I run into Him, He is never surprised at meeting me at the corner.  I just pray that as He looks at me – the dwelling place for His Holy Spirit, the House of the Lord, the walking talking church building – He sees not an abandoned empty space, not a “For Sale” sign, but a place that is open to all He has to share with me.

I was tired by the time I ventured back across those streets, underneath two interstate highways, and across the river to our hotel.  But the Lord and I had a beautiful walk, and I was reminded of His presence anywhere and everywhere.

Take a walk with Jesus this week.  You’ll be glad you did.

Just a thought.

By Ryan Kelly –

It has been a busy month of conferences and speaking engagements for me, and this photo is from one of them. Many people see me today and think that I was always comfortable behind a microphone, but reality is that I used to be very shy in public. There are many times as a kid that I would have to say something in front of an audience, and I would nearly panic and freeze. It was only toward the end of high school into college where I began to feel more comfortable in front of an audience. Now as a professional, I thrive in that environment.

Why am I telling you this? It’s because the Lord helped me to overcome my fear and helped me to gain confidence in myself and my ability to communicate in front of others. This did not come naturally to me, but now it’s my favorite environment. I would now rather speak in front of a crowd of 10,000 people than 10. What used to terrify me is now my greatest strength.

God can do anything in your life. If He has a goal for you and you allow Him to work in your life, He will transform you into the man or woman that He desires you to be. Of course, this may not come easy and won’t be without its share of pain and difficulty, but pain and pressure is part of the process of molding and shaping you into something special. Like a diamond that takes years of intense pressure and then moments of cutting and shaping, God is likely shaping you into the diamond that He desires you to be with the intention of using you for amazing things in this world.

Continue to trust in the Lord and allow Him to work in you and through you. If you do, you will truly gain confidence in knowing that God has made you exactly how He wants you…no matter what that may look like in this life. We all have purpose, and it is wonderful.

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:6-7

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

Many of you, because of the photos that I share on a weekly basis, have commented to me or asked me questions about what seems to be a lifetime of traveling my family and I have enjoyed.  I’m amused at that assumption, really, because I’ve never thought we did a lot of traveling at all.  It’s just that we take full advantage of every opportunity we have been given to see and experience something new.

Those of you who travel some will agree with these words that my college friends and I used to jokingly repeat from time to time – “Wherever I go, there I am.”  You see, no matter where I have been in my small world over the past half century or so, I am always the same fellow.

In my random picture taking as I roam, I’m always amazed by any animal activity.  One sunny morning as we stood on the pier walkway near the Mayflower reconstruction at Plymouth Harbor, there were not yet many people around, but there were plenty of birds.  This particular pretty purple pigeon walked and cooed and walked and cooed up and down the banister.  Not afraid of me, it was fairly close.  But it didn’t matter to the bird that I was there, that I was so much larger than it, that I was so very close.  The pigeon just was itself.

Pigeons are not that unusual.  I see many of the fat birds roaming all over the parking lots at Wal-Mart and various other stores.  And a pigeon by any other name is still a pigeon.  (Didn’t Shakespeare write about that?)  Pigeons are pigeons whether they frequent the neighborhood shopping center or hang around historical sites in places like Plymouth, Massachusetts.  Be they pretty, purple, or otherwise, they are still pigeons.

No matter where I roam in this world, I am still Brad.  It doesn’t matter whether I’m at the local store, staring down into the Grand Canyon or looking up from underneath the Eiffel Tower.  It doesn’t matter if I’m watching the waves of the Atlantic Ocean from the sands of Canon Beach, Oregon, or the waves of the Pacific Ocean hitting the rocky shores of Portland, Maine.  In either place, I am who I am.  And that is a child of God.

Those closest to me have heard me tell that one particular reminder my mother used to give us as we kids headed out the door for whatever activity when we were younger was, “Remember who you are and whose you are.”  Certainly that had relation to the fact that she and our father, who just happened to be the preacher also, would be watching and listening, but so would the Lord.  We belonged to Him, and we would be representing Him wherever we were.

As a child of God, I represent Him wherever I go.  I am Brad wherever I go.  I may not be as pretty as the purple Plymouth pigeon, but I can be a bold Bible believer, taking Him with me along life’s journeys.  That’s our challenge for the week ahead!

Just a thought.

By Ryan Kelly –

My own quiet time here lately has been spent in first and second Kings. I really enjoy history, so learning about the different kingdoms of Israel and Judah and their political interworking is a true joy to me.

One thing that is striking to me how few of the kings followed God’s path for their lives and for His people. My reading today from 2 Kings 21 describes King Josiah as a man who “did right in the eyes of the Lord.” Josiah is the son of king Amon, who sinned against the Lord by worshiping false God’s and allowing sin to prevail in Israel. Instead of taking the easy path of following his father, he rejected sin and blazed a new path for the nation that lasted for more than 30 years.

What I love about the description of Josiah, which is shared by only a handful of King’s in Judah’s history, is that he is not described as perfect or ideal. Rather, he aligned with the Lord’s teachings and sought to glorify him by rejecting sin in Judah, tearing down the high places and Baal statues, and bringing the nation back to the Lord.

Oh how we need this in our world today!

If you want to have a label placed on yourself about what you stand for, why not aim for being “someone who does what is right in the eyes of the Lord?” This is absolutely what I strive for in my life, and I hope and pray the same for you.

2 Kings 22: 2 – “He did what was right in the LORD’s sight, walking in the way of David his father, not turning right or left.”

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.
I have a sweet tooth. I don’t crave sweets. And if there are none in the house, I’m okay with that. But leave them lying around, and they won’t be there long, I assure you. It doesn’t matter what it is. Cake, cookies, pie, the occasional candy bar, and certainly the ice cream. Most any flavor will do.

So, as youngest daughter helped her parents plan our adventuring in the New England states this past summer, one spot she requested we at least walk into was the Parker House Hotel, officially called the Omni Parker House, in Boston. We walked around the nearby park and then headed just down the street to the grand old hotel, where we walked into the very large lobby, immediately reminded that we didn’t belong there. Alas, you would have never known it by the reception we received.

One kind gentleman behind the concierge desk, when I asked about some President Kennedy and Charles Dickens connections at the hotel, volunteered to give us a grand tour. And grand it was. Down a back stairway, through narrow underground passages, into the extremely large kitchen. It was in that kitchen that the first original Boston cream pie was created. It was also there that the aptly named Parker House rolls came to be.

Years old equipment is still in use to create these wonderful treats, such as the Boston cream pie you see here in my photo. We really were treated very well and were showed lots of history in the old place, namely the table where J.F.K. proposed to Jacqueline, and the door to the room Charles Dickens once occupied while there. To close our nice tour, we stopped in the little shop and purchased Boston cream pies for each of us. Beautiful looking, even decadent. But I was not impressed.

The place was gorgeous, the history was amazing, the kindness shown to us made our day. But something that cost so much tasted so plain to me.
The world brings a hype with it that makes too many things look so wonderful, feel so grand, and make us want to come back for more. But then we get a big taste, and we finally realize it wasn’t all it was made up to be.

As you go about the grand adventures of your week ahead, remember the old saying, “All that glitters is not gold.” Just because it looks delicious and has a grand price tag on it, doesn’t mean it’s all that great. Experience all you can, within moral reason, of course, but be careful what you take in. It just might leave a bitter taste in your mouth to remind you of your mistake.

Just a thought.

Till later,

Brad

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

Do you believe everything you see or read?  Sadly, we can’t much anymore.  But there was a time when a man’s word meant something.  If the news media reported a story, it might contain honest mistakes, but you could rely on the meat of the story to be as accurate as possible.

Entirely too many people in today’s world believe everything that is posted on social media.  Too many folks take social media and even printed media to be the “gospel truth.”  Satan loves to talk to anyone who will listen, and he will take advantage of every opportunity to sneak his ideas, ideals, and lack of morality into our daily lives.  He wants us to believe it all and to trust none of it.  He is the author of confusion.

Recent surgeries and illnesses of dear family members have meant that my presence inside the hospital has been a daily occurrence.  On one such occasion, as patient and I watched the nurse get all the necessary equipment hooked up and started, this was the first blood pressure reading that the machine recorded!  “Alarm limit exceeded.”  Indeed!  Did we believe those numbers?  No.  They were “alarming” but not scary, because we knew not to believe what we were reading and seeing.  We knew the truth to be much better than what that particular moment showed us.

Let me tell you where you can believe everything you read — in God’s Word.  The Bible is the infallible, inerrant, indisputable, undeniable Word of the One Who died to save you from your sins, to provide you the only means of salvation, and to guarantee that as a blood-bought, forgiven, and saved child of God, you are guaranteed an eternity in His presence.  

You can bank on His Word.  You can believe it all.  There are certainly some passages in the Scriptures that will surprise and perhaps even alarm you, but know that it’s all Truth.  Read it, re-read it, and re-read it again.  Then share the truth you’ve read.

Just a thought.