The Masters Hand Church of God

06/08/2026

06/07/2026

Good morning! We welcome you with open arms as you join us for Sunday morning Worship! We hope God moves in your lives and speaks to you!

04/14/2026

Listen

Listen to your life. All moments are key moments.

—Frederick Buechner

Be honest with yourself. When was the last time you sat and just had a real, live conversation with someone else, in which you took turns and genuinely listened to what they said? No devices. No TV. No music. No distractions.

No wonder it’s so hard for us to listen to God.

As we read in Habakkuk 1, he boldly asked God all the really hard questions that were on his heart. It’s hard to love someone—even the Creator of the Universe—if you’re holding grudges and hiding your true feelings. Habakkuk clearly loved God, but that didn’t keep him from respectfully challenging God with a request to help him understand the huge gap between what he believed and what he saw all around him.

Once the prophet had finished asking his questions, he knew it was time to listen. The same is true for you. Habakkuk wrote, “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint” (Habakkuk 2:1 NIV, emphasis mine). I love these images. I will stand at my watch and look to see what God will say to me. Sometimes the reason we’re not getting answers to our questions is that we’re not willing to pause and wait long enough for God to reveal himself to us.

The writer of Psalm 46:10 quotes God: “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Notice what God did not say: “Be busy, and know that I am God.”

He said, “Be still.” Be. Still. And listen.

How do you actually listen to God? You can open his Word and let his Spirit bring truth to life. God speaks through circumstances, if you pause long enough to reflect. He speaks through people, offering divine wisdom from heaven. And he can speak directly to you through his Spirit. When you belong to him, spend time with him, and quiet yourself before him, you will learn to recognize his voice.

Maybe you’ve been asking God for what you need. That’s perfectly reasonable; God wants us to reach out to him. But are you willing to listen to what he has to say to you, even if his answer isn’t what you want to hear? Keep listening. God will not abandon you in your time of need; he will tenaciously hold you close and carry you through your pain.

Pray: God, I’m ready to listen. What are your plans in this situation? How can I grow through this?

04/10/2026

When You Question and Believe

Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.

William Barclay, Scottish minister

I don’t know what you’re going through or what you’ve already survived. But I do know this: our God is a good God who loves us enough to sacrifice his precious Son, the greatest gift he could give us, just so we can know him, just so we can glorify him on earth, just so we can spend eternity with him in heaven.

He loves us that much. We’re able to love him—or anyone else—only because he first loved us.

When hard things happen, and the best you can manage is to want to believe, that’s enough. Don’t stop wanting to believe.

Allow that spark of hope to grow by trusting that God is right there beside you. Pray and ask God to help you overcome your unbelief. Like Habakkuk, ask your questions and then be prepared to listen to God’s response.

My prayer is that you would grow to have that Habakkuk kind of faith we see in chapter 3. But here’s the deal: you can’t have a chapter 3 type of faith until you’ve had a chapter 1 type of question and a chapter 2 kind of waiting. Because God often does more spiritually in the valley than he does on the mountaintop.

I don’t have all the answers to your questions. But after loving God and serving Christ for more than twenty-nine years now, here’s what I can say: I’ve walked with Jesus for enough yesterdays to trust him with all my tomorrows.

Do you want to grow closer to God? Do you want that intimacy with him more than you want a comfortable, easygoing, problem-free life?

Then never stop wanting to believe.

You can have hope in the dark. Because as you grow to know God, he will reveal even more of his love, his faithfulness, his grace. And over time you will realize, believe, and embrace that even when life is difficult, God is still good.

Pray: God, I believe you’re good, and I’m ready to keep growing closer and closer to you. I’m in this for the long haul. Amen.

04/07/2026

Have you ever noticed in the story of the prodigal son that the father didn’t have to kick the son out of the house? The son chose to leave. He wanted a lifestyle of excess and sin, and the father allowed him to make that choice as an adult. It was simply a given that the son had to leave his father’s home in order to live in this manner.

The father didn’t cave to the fear of losing his son and compromise to get him to stay. He didn’t even use financial control and withhold his inheritance.
In the end, what changed the son’s heart wasn’t his father preaching at him or pleading with him.

Instead, God’s Spirit used the emptiness and filth that a rebellious lifestyle naturally yields over time to make the son yearn for his father’s comfort and care.

God works in ways we can’t comprehend, even using the consequences of our sin. He is able to do far beyond what you can do for your child in your own wisdom and strength. Your job is to maintain personal integrity, love, and solid faith in God’s truth.

03/25/2026

The shield of faith
Perhaps the most intriguing line of the apostle Paul’s famous words about the armor of God is this: “Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16).
Why would Satan fire flaming arrows at you? Maybe because, as some scholars have suggested, a flaming arrow could cause a soldier to drop his protective wooden shield.
This is why the devil loves the lies that tempt you to put down your faith, to discard that childlike trust in the Bible and its ultimate truth. “Doesn’t science prove the Bible to be mistaken?” “Would God really say the things the Bible says about sexuality and marriage?” “A God of love would never support the Bible’s teaching on hell.” Those “arrows” have left all too many souls Bible-less, Christ-less, and defenseless.
Some historians believe that Roman soldiers soaked their shields in water before a battle so fiery arrows couldn’t set them ablaze. In a similar way, faith in Jesus can “extinguish all the flaming arrows” of Satan’s half-truths. Jesus himself taught us that the “word is truth” (John 17:17) and a Jesus who died for us would never lie to us.
Take up the shield of faith, and you’ll stay standing the next time the devil fires an arrow at your soul.