Colorado Avenue Baptist Church

06/08/2026

Devotional for June 8, 2026
What is success?
Be careful how you view success and how you define success. This probably isn't earth-shattering news to those who have been followers of Jesus for any amount of time. The secular world view and philosophy will tell you that success is bringing in money by the truckload. Success is becoming famous. It will tell you that success is getting the big corner office or winning the big game. Some will tell you that success is having the big college degrees and the high paying job. Some are a little easier, they say if you are happy you have found success. If you haven't accomplished at least one of these things, the world will tell you that your a failure. Worst yet, you will believe them. Even those who are the most devout Christ followers can fall into the trap of allowing their job title, their income or their accomplishments to define them as successful or to define who they are.
Now that we've looked at what the world views as success, let's look at how God sees success. First of all, let me say that in and of themselves, these things are not wrong. The Bible speaks of two people who were wealthy, King Solomon and Joseph of Arimathea. They were both wealthy and successful but it wasn't their wealth that made them successful. What made them successful was their obedience to the will of God. Success doesn't always bring wealth. If you look at the apostles, they were successful but they weren't rich by any stretch of the imagination, famous but not wealthy. Once again, it was their obedience to God that made them famous. If asked how to achieve success, the answer is really simple. Be in the center of God's will. I've known people who worked for insurance companies, real estate or sold time shares and based on this, I can say that most people who are in sales look at their percentage of sales made to determine their success rating. They must maintain a certain percentage for the company to keep them. Some do very well with it, others... Not so much. If you are in God's will, sharing the gospel, your success rate will always be one hundred percent. God only tells us to share the Gospel and what Jesus did for us. If we do that, we've succeeded, Isaiah 55:11 says "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." In 1 Corinthians 3:6, the Apostle Paul puts it this way. "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow." In other words, God will bring the increase. When we share God's message, we are merely helping to plant a seed or most likely, watering a Gospel seed that someone before us has already planted. The beautiful part is that every once in a while, we are the one that happens to be there when that seed blooms and a new Christian is born.
Being at the right spot in God's will is more important than any amount of money you can earn, any amount of fame you can realize, any amount of approval that you can receive from people because, "Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain."

Blessings
Pastor Greg

06/07/2026

05/20/2026

Isaiah 26:3: "You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you."

We've endured a couple of stormy nights in our area. The thunder, the lightning, the high winds. All of these things can be unsettling. I remember as a child these things used to terrify me. I was always afraid of the possible tornado. This is true for most children. As we grow to adulthood, the weather becomes less frightening. There are other worries that can creep into our minds and lives to replace them though. These storms threaten our security and our livelihood if we let them. Things like terrorism, civil unrest, job loss, loss of a loved one.
In Isaiah 26:3, he's telling the reader that if we focus toward Jesus and keep our thoughts on Him we will be at peace. Many adults will tell you that they get their best sleep during a thunderstorm. If your mind is steadfast on God, on His Word, we can be as calm as the people who are able to sleep through a thunderstorm.
We reach this level by prayer without cessation 1 Thess. 5:17). This does not mean that we are in continuous prayer as much as it means that we are constantly aware of God's presence. We are constantly aware of His existence. When we know that God is right there, overseeing every situation, how can we possibly allow ourselves to become unnerved by the storms of life.

Blessings,
Pastor Greg

05/19/2026

Luke 6:31 (NIV): "Do to others as you would have them do to you."

One of my daughter's favorite cartoons is Sofia The First. It is a show on Disney about a young girl who was adopted into the royal family when her mom married the king. Upon joining the royal family her new sister, Amber, was not very nice to her. As the series went on, they slowly grew together. Toward the end of the series, Sofia gave the speech at her graduation. During the speech she commented that at first Amber was not that nice to her. This made Amber kind of shrink (in shame) in her seat.
There are two things that we can learn from this whole scenario, things that we've pretty much all experienced on one or both ends of this at some point.
The first is to think about your behavior toward others. Ask yourself this question. When someone tells the story of you and them, will you like the way you're portrayed in their story? Will it be mostly good or mostly bad? For me, there are some that would probably shrink in their seats as I shared my experience. That's not the question though.It's not about them. It's about you. If people were sharing their experience about you would you be slightly embarrassed and ashamed or would you feel a little proud because you were that light in a time of darkness.

Some people may say yeah, but that is holding a grudge. No. Not really. Another key point to remember is that during this whole sequence, Sofia was not holding onto a grudge as some might say. She was merely relaying her experience. Over the years, times change. New friends come. Friends go. One-time enemies become friends. That doesn't change past experiences and it would be dishonest to change the past experiences.

This brings us to what Jesus taught in Luke 6:31. "Do to others as you would have them do to you." This seems simple enough. If you wouldn't like something done to you, said to you, said about you, then don't do it to someone else, say it to someone else or say it about someone else.

05/18/2026

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. Revelation 12:10

Revelation 12:10 says that Satan accuses us before God day and night. Satan's minions also oppress the believer with these types of thoughts. This is two-fold. When we sin we're given thoughts about how God could ever love us. We're dirty. We're immoral. That's low hanging fruit. We can also fall prey through no sin of our own.
"Don't fall for the false guilt" This is wisdom that was shared with me within hours of my wife's passing, and not just by one person but by several pastors and strong Christian friends who had no real affiliation with each other aside from the fact that I was a mutual connection. This really stuck with me. Even with this advice, I started wondering. Could I have done more? Could I have been nicer? Should I have stayed longer the night before? Was I the husband that she deserved? Would, should, didn't. All of those things and more can be used by Satan to beat us up if we allow ourselves to go too far down that path.
I wish that I could say that I've been diligent to heed that advice but there were times that good friends had to stop me from going down that path. It seems unavoidable but the Bible gives us answers when Satan oppresses us with false guilt.
The first thing to remember is that it is not condemnation from God. The Apostle Paul tells us this in Romans 8:1. If we've trusted Jesus to be our Lord and Savior we are not condemned.
John 16:8 says that the Holy Spirit will convict us of our sins. This is different than condemnation though. With conviction, there is a resolution. With condemnation there is only shame.
It is when we know the difference between the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the condemnation of the enemy that we can avoid false guilt over things that we honestly did what we thought was best or worked with what we knew. It is my prayer that if you are reading this and feeling guilty over some uncontrollable thing in your life that the Love of Jesus will set you free from that.

Blessings,
Pastor Greg