Mattoon East Side Nazarene

06/02/2026

Ask God to show you what it means to connect with those God brings into your life as we follow Jesus and include others in the journey of grace.

06/02/2026

Avoid Quarrels

2 Timothy 2:22

23 But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. 24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,

Opinions? Everyone has one. Everyone thinks that their opinions are right. Some folks seem addicted to arguing; they spring at every opportunity to engage. This quarrelsome spirit does not belong in the hearts of the Ambassadors of Christ, and that is what we are. We do not win enemies over to His side by a quarrelsome spirit; we divide the body of Christ by the same. Cultivate understanding for another’s opinion and know that you do not always have to express yours, and further, you do not always have to be right or have the last word.

~ H. Lamar Smith

06/01/2026

"When Jesus Went to Prison." Please listen to the story of Thaddeus Black. Share it with your family and friends. Ask God to show you what it means to connect with those God brings into your life as we follow Jesus and include others in the journey of grace.

Discover the powerful story of how the love of Jesus transformed th...

06/01/2026

Spirit of Anti-Christ

Deuteronomy 6:4-5

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Ancient Israel was given the Great Commandment, “Hear (Shema), O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (NASB). Prior to this they were told, “You shall have no other gods before Me,” means that you are to have no gods “beside Me”, or “in addition to Me”. The literal Hebrew is, “You shall have no other gods in my face.” (Deuteronomy 5:7). Israel never abandoned the worship of their God; they just allowed other gods to consume their imagination alongside their true Lord. Messiah is King and Lord over all kings and lords; we must never allow one to inch up alongside Him. To confess Him as Lord when the heart is divided denies the confession and is anti-Messiah.

~ H. Lamar Smith

05/29/2026

Authority

Genesis 4:7

7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.

In a world hell-bent on having its own way, it is terribly difficult to cultivate the right attitude toward authority. The “QUESTION AUTHORITY!” mentality is so interwoven into the fabric of our society, it seems impossible to counteract it. Realistically, about the only place we can come to terms with it is in our homes. Are you doing this? Be honest. Within the walls of your dwelling are you maintaining the controls? Maybe these three warnings will encourage you to stay at it . . . or start today.

Childhood. A rebellious nature is conceived in a home where parents relinquish control.

2. Adolescence. A rebellious spirit will be cultivated among peers who resist control. And if it isn’t curbed there, it culminates at—

3. Adulthood. A rebellious life must be cursed by God when He regains control.

Take it from one who experienced it and deals with it week after week, nothing is more painful to endure. Some must discover the need for a submissive spirit behind bars. Others, following a divorce. Still others, through a crippling disease or a horrible automobile accident or a series of blows in life that drive us to our knees and force us to learn how to walk humbly with our God.

When Cain curled his lip and stood tight-fisted in rebellion before his Maker, he was given a sobering warning that has been preserved in Scripture for all to read and heed: “If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:7).

Nothing has changed. The mark of Cain has been branded on this generation. Resisting authority still crouches like a beast at the door, ready to spring and pounce on its prey, be it parent or policeman or teacher or employer or minister or president—whoever. Some never learn to “master it” and therefore spend their lives “under the smarting rod of God,” as the old Puritans used to say. Those who question authority face a hard future.

My friend, are you in that category? Do you have a loose grip on authority? Do you think you can continue to endure God’s attempts to humble you?

~ Chuck Swindoll

05/28/2026

Holiness - Pressing On!

“The crucial question is: when the Holy Spirit effects experiential sanctification within us, what is it He does? Let me draw a parallel. At present no one on earth has absolute health. All are mortal. Yet there can be abounding health. What such health is to the body, holiness is in our moral nature. It is not a static moral perfection, but moral and spiritual health abounding. It is the infilling Holy Spirit interpenetrating every part of my moral being, transforming diseased impulses and responses, unholy thought, motive, temper, inclination, into fullness of moral health. The truth is: he comes not only to fill me but to change me.” (J. Sidlow Baxter)

Holiness of heart and life is not a static experience into which we enter but a life calling in which the heart and soul are continually transformed by the very presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts. Unholy thoughts, impulses, responses, inclinations all need the continuous bathing by the Spirit if a person is to grow in, not into but in, this experience of Christian holiness. Holiness is a way of living and growing and becoming not a once in a lifetime filling which perfects and empowers.

Hence, the words of Paul in Philippians 1:9-11 should inspire us today: “I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ — for this will bring much glory and praise to God.”

Pay particular attention to these phrases:
“. . . your love will overflow more and more . . . keep on growing in knowledge and understanding . . . live pure and blameless lives . . . always be filled with the fruit of your salvation . . . .” Overflow more and more. Always be filled. Keep on growing.

Christian holiness is both a crisis experience of full surrender and a growing experience in that full surrender. Neither compromises the other. Later in Philippians Paul writes: “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things.” (Philippians 3:12-15)

Yes, “let all who are spiritually mature agree” on this!

05/27/2026

05/27/2026

Energized and Strengthened

1 Corinthians 2:12

12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

The Holy Spirit Who now lives in you is the same Holy Spirit in Genesis 1 Who hovered over the formless, empty, dark blob of earth that dangled in space. As He powerfully energized and pulsated the atmosphere, He prepared the planet to receive God’s Word and be transformed into a place of purpose and beauty that ultimately, in the end, reflected the image of God.

That same Holy Spirit is now powerfully at work in your life, hovering over your heart, preparing you to love God and be fully aware of His love for you. He hovers over your mind, preparing you to understand spiritual things and the truth of His Word. He hovers over your will, preparing you to make decisions that are pleasing to Him. All the power of God – the same power that hung the stars in place and put the planets in their courses and transformed Earth – now resides in you to energize and strengthen you to become the person God created you to be.

05/26/2026

It All Comes Down to Attitude

Philippians 2:1-2
Unity Through Humility

1 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Dr. Victor Frankl, the bold, courageous Jew who became a prisoner during the Holocaust, endured years of indignity and humiliation by the N***s before he was finally liberated. At the beginning of his ordeal, he was marched into a Gestapo courtroom. His captors had taken away his home and family, his cherished freedom, his possessions, even his watch and wedding ring.

They had shaved his head and stripped his clothing off his body. There he stood before the German high command, under the glaring lights being interrogated and falsely accused. He was destitute, a helpless pawn in the hands of brutal, prejudiced, sadistic men. He had nothing. No, that isn’t true. He suddenly realized there was one thing no one could ever take from him—just one. Do you know what it was?

Dr. Frankl realized he still had the power to choose his own attitude. No matter what anyone would ever do to him or regardless of what the future held for him, the attitude choice was his to make. Bitterness or forgiveness. To give up or to go on. Hatred or hope. Determination to endure or the paralysis of self-pity.

Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitude toward life. The longer I live, the more convinced I become that life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it.

This may shock you, but I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what other people think of me or say about me, my circumstances, or my position. Attitude is what keeps me going or cripples my progress. It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitudes are right, there’s no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me.

Yet we must admit that we spend more of our time concentrating and fretting over the things that can’t be changed than we do giving attention to the one that remains, our choice of attitude. Stop and think about some of the things that suck up our attention and energy, all of them inescapable (and occasionally demoralizing).

~ Chuck Swindoll