Bruce Snavely

In real estate they have an old slogan: “Location, location, location.”  In other words, ultimate value for any real estate venture depends on where the property is located.  We have all seen great houses on not so great lots which, in the long term, lose some or all of their worth. However in the spiritual market of increasing values, it's not about location, it is about direction .  Paul told believers in Phil 3:14 to “ Press toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”   What is the high calling being spoken of here?  There might be some debate about whether this is the reward for service to Christ or the intangible goal of reaching Christlikeness we are pursuing.  In reality it is most likely the latter.  The end goal of spiritual growth is that one day we will ultimately reach the state of being like our Savior Jesus Christ.  There is no other goal greater than that, including the acquisition of rewards at the...

In the popular song by Barbara Streisand  The Way We Were,  she said that memories l ight the corners of my mind.    It's an interesting way to think about the things we remember.  In a sense, our minds are a vast un-forgettable accumulation of people, events large and small, and myriad impressions that line the attic room of our conscious minds.  The mind is full of things: good, bad, or indifferent,  that we can never forget or maybe should never forget.  The older one gets the fuller the mental attic becomes.  Year after year we keep adding and accumulating more and more stuff that builds up with our collectivee life experience. The question for us today is simply this: should we spring-clean our minds like we do our homes periodically?  Should we sift through that vast cerebral collection and consider getting rid of some stuff, forever?  For the Christian the answer is an un-equivocal yes!  In fact, its a requiremen...

How could being thankful be an act of obedience?    After all, isn't being thankful an option? These are good questions.  Whether or not we are thankful for the things that occur in our lives may be optional, but for the believer in Jesus, it is not an option.  When Paul wrote his first letter to the church at Thessalonika, he finished the letter with a flurry of what I like to call screen door admonitions.  It reminds me of being a child when mom would be running out the door on an errand when, before closing the screen door, she would give a series of rapid-fire reminders to get done before she returned. In a similar way, Paul is giving this church a series of short command-reminders as he closes his first epistle.  One of these commands focuses on the art of being grateful.  The apostle  says in  5:18 , Give thanks in  all  circumstances;  for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you .    ...

Have you as a believer given thought to how your relationship to Jesus Christ is made real from day to day?   The apostle Paul told the Ephesian believers that:   In Him you also, when you heard  the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him,  were sealed with the  promised Holy Spirit,   14  who is  the guarantee of our  inheritance until  we acquire  possession of it,  to the praise of his glory. (1:13-14) Probably the single greatest element of this verse is the fact that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit when we believe on Christ.    The concept of sealing is taken from the Roman postal system.  When a letter was sealed with a wax seal from its sender, this meant that the seal was to remain permanently sealed until the recipient of the letter received it.  This was in fact, a guarantee of the sender's complete and unquestioned ownership of the contents.  In the case ...

I remember the life situation I was in when it happened.  It was while I was shepherding a church many years ago when seemingly out of nowhere my spiritual equilibrium went south.  During this difficult time the Lord taught me one of the greatest life lessons I have ever known.  It is simply this: God owns me and all that I am. I can hear someone say, "But didn't you already know that as a Christian minister?"  My answer is yes, I knew it, but it hadn't traveled the full eighteen inches down to my heart!  The Scripture clearly says, for you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body (I Corinthians 6:20).  If there is any New Testament verse which declares the fact of who owns you, this one does.  But that's only the introduction! In Romans 12:1:2, Paul the apostle tells us what we ought to do because of the fact that God owns us.  That is a completely different matter isn't it?  So what is the proper life response ...

One of the most familiar verses to us as believers is Philippians 4 :6, where Paul commanded the Philippian believers not to be anxious for anything, but in "everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,  let your requests be made known unto God." Without giving a blow by blow explanation of the passage, let me at least mention that the entire passage which ends in verse 9 is focusing on allowing the Spirit to maintain the peace of God in our hearts as Christians.   Three things will determine whether that happens .  Verses 6-7 reveals that in order to have the peace of God controlling us we need to pray right .  Verse 8 shows us that we need to think right .  Verse 9 shows us that we need to do right. The first of these is prayer.  In reality Paul is commanding us to pray about everything.  We tend to limit the scope of prayer, don't we?  I know I do, but God doesn't limit either the scope of what we can ask for or how He answers...

One of the most life changing and soul altering practices in all of life is the act of forgiveness.  What is it?  It is the act of freeing someone from further obligation to you who has in one way or another hurt you in the past by offering forgiveness.   Forgiveness not only frees the person who has inflicted pain or injustice upon us but it also frees us from the toxic nature of repressed anger, bitterness, and all the negative energy associated with an unforgiving spirit in our own lives.      Listen to what Jesus told his followers. "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." We who have been forgiven of our sins in Jesus Christ ought to be the first to want to offer the same opportunity of forgiveness to someone who has either offended or hurt us.  However, that is not always the case.  On...