by Garris Elkins | Feb 21, 2018 | Courage, Deliverance, Discipleship, Discipline, Family, Freedom, Honor, Identity, Marriage, Mercy, Obedience, Peace, Relationships, Restoration, Spiritual Warfare
From time-to-time, I have to block people from my social media accounts. It happened yesterday when a young woman named “Ginger” wanted to connect via Twitter. My first indication that something was amiss was when I noticed she did not dress appropriately for the...
by Garris Elkins | Feb 20, 2018 | Church planting, Fathers, Forgiveness, Freedom, Holiness, Humility, Identity, Justice, Kingdom of God, Love, Mercy, Obedience, Peace, Pride, Reconciliation
It doesn’t take much talent to catch a despised politician or someone we find disgusting in a moment of less than complimentary composure. In those moments a photo is snapped by an opportunist paparazzi to confirm our most base opinion about the person caught in a...
by Garris Elkins | Feb 18, 2018 | Creativity, Peace, Restoration, Spirit
There are days when my soul is soothed by an hour or two of long instrumental electric guitar solos played by a master guitarist. (Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Steve Vai, Mark Knopfler, Joe Satriani, Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughn and my friend, Caleb Quaye, to...
by Garris Elkins | Feb 14, 2018 | Courage, Discipline, Fathers, Fear, Future, Gifts, God, Honor, Identity, Leadership, Peace, Pride, Reconciliation, Relationships, Restoration, Trust
As a young and insecure pastor, I listened to Ron Mehl, the pastor of the Beaverton Foursquare Church, give some sage advice. At the time, I had less than 10 people attending my struggling church plant. Ron had thousands. I was asked to meet with a group of equally...
by Garris Elkins | Feb 9, 2018 | Discipleship, Discipline, Obedience, Peace, Wisdom
One mark of spiritual maturity is learning how and when to use the personal delete button. Some things should not be shared in a public forum until God has been given the time required to first process the issue in our heart. This is important because an...
by Garris Elkins | Feb 2, 2018 | Courage, Deliverance, Forgivness, Future, Hope, Love, Peace, Promotion, Restoration, Spiritual Warfare, Wisdom, Worship
I remember the first time I experienced the power of a worship flag being used outside a corporate worship service. It was ten years ago. I was lying on the floor of the Alabaster Prayer House at Bethel Church in Redding, California. Beautiful music filled the room....
