Category: Discipling

Peace Gives Us Confidence

When do you perform your best work?  When you are ill-prepared and worried about the outcome or when you are so prepared that you can add a little extra flair because of your confidence?  Most would agree that, when we are achieving with confidence, we produce better results and enjoy the process more.


John 14:26–27 (NASB95)

26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. 27 “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

Troubling times…fear…they rob us of our best work.  When we lie in bed, struggling to find restful sleep, we rob our bodies of the energy we need for maximum productivity.  Two things that help us to sleep better are a clear conscience and peace that all is well.  But God knows that we are not able to muster the abiding peace that assures us of our safety and well-being.  That’s why He gives us peace as one of the components of the Fruit of the Spirit.

Jesus told His disciples that He would leave them peace.  He left them the kind of peace that inspires real comfort and confidence.  We have that same peace living within us as followers of Christ.  We have peace knowing that we are not of this world.  We rest assured of our eternal security and righteousness before God through Jesus’ atoning death.  So when you are feeling troubled or restless and find that you are unable to find comfort within yourself, turn to the Spirit that lives within you, the one that Jesus promised to give you.  You will find peace of mind and confidence to move forward in your good purpose that God has given you.  Blessings to all!

Joy and the Spirit

If you read the verses listed in yesterday’s post, you may have noticed some commonalities between them.  Joy used with faith.  Joy referenced with the Spirit.  Joy as a way of life, not an emotion.

I fear that one of the greatest disservices we have done to the Christian faith is perpetuate an untruth that the life of a follower of Christ is a guaranteed happy life.  We are not assured of “happiness” when we accept Christ.  What we are assured is that we have a good God-given purpose.  Embracing that purpose is the key to living our best lives, satisfaction and the joy that ensues from having served our Creator in the way He would have us serve.

Calvin Miller wrote, “Joy is our response to the creation of God.” (Joy: Cultivating Spirit-given Character, Thomas Nelson Pub. 2008).  I get my greatest spiritual joy from contemplating the intricacies of God’s handiwork.  Have you ever thought about how amazing the human ear is?  It takes speakers of all shapes and sizes to accurately produce the sounds of music.  Yet, the tiny membrane in our ear vibrates in such a way that our brain can interpret all the sounds we hear.  Scientists have attempted to explain emotions through chemical reactions related to our sensory organs.  But even happiness is a creation of Almighty God.  We wouldn’t have the ability to feel excitement, infatuation or awe without them having been created by God and given to us in the makeup of our bodies.

During this week of fellowship and thanksgiving, I pray that you find yourself joyful that God has given you life, a good life with a good purpose.  And I pray that you find joy in the simplest of God’s creation.  Puppy breath, the need for hugs and love for family are given to us by the Lord so that we may find joy in His beautiful creation.

Let’s Consider Joy…

…first, since love is such a vast subject as a component of the Fruit of the Spirit (FoS).  We’ll save love for later and study it more thoroughly.

Joy, χαρά chará; gen. charás, fem. noun from chaírō; 

“joy in the Holy Ghost,” meaning the joy which the Holy Spirit imparts by His influence; (Rom.) 15:13; 2 Cor. 1:24; 2:3; 7:4, 13; 8:2; Gal. 5:22; Phil. 1:25

Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).

Rom 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (NASB:95)

Paul wrote about joy in Romans 15.13 as it related to “the power of the Holy Spirit” and also alluded to the combination of joy and peace, two components of the FoS.  I challenge you to look up the other verses above from 2 Corinthians and Philippians to see how closely they are tied to the Holy Spirit and FoS.  These verses are the ones in which “joy” is translated from the same word as used in Galatians 5:22.  Read the verses to see what connection, if any, is there.  Once you complete the “assignment”, make sure to come back tomorrow and we’ll discuss what you discovered!

Sermon 181118

Here is the outline from the sermon preached at Providence Baptist Church in Adair Co., Kentucky on November 18, 2018.

Can We Be Too Thankful?

Joshua 24:14-28 (Nov. 18, 2018)

Joshua reviewed the history of the Israelites from the time they left Egypt until their inheritance of the Promised Land?  How thankful do you think the people were to get there?

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When the Israelites were challenged by Joshua to decide which God they would serve, how many of the Israelites do you think really chose God in their hearts?

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When you sit down at the table every Thanksgiving, how do you offer up thanks to the Lord?  Is it sincere?  Is it like the Israelites, without much meat on the bone?

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If you were challenged to justify your last year’s Thanksgiving Day prayer with your actions of 2018, how would you describe your success?

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Is it possible to get so “thankful” for what we have that we just sit back to see what God is going to do for us next instead of embracing the purpose He has for us?

Fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22–23 (NASB95)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

No other verses of Scripture have shaped my teaching and preaching more than these two from the fifth chapter of Galatians.  Much has been written about how to bear the fruit in this list of nine abstract nouns. 

Over the course of several posts I am going to explore some of the previously written works on Fruit of the Spirit (FoS) and also make a case for why FoS is one of the fundamental, underlying concepts in all of Scripture.  Just as many have written books about the presence of Jesus and His redemptive purpose in every book of the Bible, I am going to contend that the FoS makes a similarly prominent showing. 

This journey will be an expansive study for me with the end result being that I hope to demonstrate the importance of displaying and teaching the Fruit of the Spirit when fulfilling the Great Commission to go and make disciples.

Thanks to everyone who has read so far.  Have a blessed Saturday and Lord’s Day and I will be back on Monday.  You can also follow my Facebook page, Byron VanArsdale, or the Facebook page of the church at where I preach, Providence Baptist Church.  Blessings to all!!

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me! My name is Byron.  I am the pastor of a small Baptist church in south-central Kentucky.  I recently retired from public school teaching so I am going to dedicate more time to ministry and encouraging others.  Starting tomorrow, I will be updating this blog with Scripture, comments, encouragement and discussion related to all of us drawing closer to God.  Feel free to interact with any of the content, but please be mindful that this is a family-oriented website.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

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