Growing Spiritually in 2026

As we navigate the complexities of life in 2026, grounding ourselves in biblical truths can provide guidance and strength. I will share with you again a summary of the messages from Declaration Church's Sunday morning messages.

By incorporating these biblical truths and practices into your life in 2026, you can foster a deeper relationship with God and experience meaningful spiritual growth. Remember, it is a journey that requires patience and commitment.

Biblical Truths to live by

The Personal Growth in Sunday Messages

Sunday, 01/04/2026,

We read Psalm 51:1-19 and 2 Samuel 12:1-13

The focus today was on forgiveness and reconciliation. It is believed that this Psalm was written by David. Psalm 51:1 starts with David asking God to be gracious according to His loving kindness and compassion to blot out David's transgressions. In vs 3 David acknowledges his sin, in vs 7 he asks God to wash him, and he shall be whiter than snow. In vs 10 he asks God to create in him a clean heart. In 2 Sam 12:1-13 David is being confronted by Nathan about David's sin. David admits to his sin to Nathan and to God. God forgave David but there were consequences. God is kind, gracious and compassionate.

As we continued we looked at Jeremiah29:11-13 God tells Jeremiah that God has plans for him, God will be with him, Jeremiah will listen and when Jeremiah searches for God he will find Him. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it reminds us that as we accept Jesus into our lives we become a new creature. Old things are gone and new things have come. As I heard this message I once again realized I can be my own worst enemy. I can find my faults/sins faster then I can see my talents and gifts. This message reminds me that all the people that God used were sinners and had problems. It didn't make God love them less. Sometimes I think it helps Him loves them and all people more. I am so grateful for the forgiveness of God and the reconciliation I can have once I have admitted my sin and asked for that forgiveness.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

During this week we were encouraged to take time to check our heart and see if we need to purge some transgressions. God is ready to forgive and get us back on track. The hard part is Trusting in God.

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Sunday 01/11/2026

Today's focus was on Trusting God. We looked at three main verses as well as supporting verses and documents. In Psalm 40:4 we saw how David identified his sins as troubles. In this Psalm David encourages us to make the Lord our "TRUST". In Psalm 56:3-4 David identifies that when he is afraid he will put his TRUST in God. In looking at further verses there is a confident assurance that God is there with David in his time of need. In Psalm 62:8 David again encourages people to remember to TRUST in God at all times. In the verses prior to this David talks about his Hope in God, how God is his rock and his salvation. In Isaiah 26:3-4 talks about how trusting in God will help us have perfect peace. It will help our mind be steadfast. It encourages us to TRUST in the Lord forever and that the Lord is the rock eternal.

It was noted that the words of trust are in over 100 verses in the bible. The words of "TRUST" are: trust, entrust, entrusted, trusted, trustfully, trusting, trusts, trustworthy, trusted, trustfully, trusting, trusts, and trustworthy. One of my favorite verses is in Psalm 20:7 - Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. There is a song using these verses and how wonderful it is to sometimes use music to help in sharing Gods word.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

In looking at Trusting in God it was noted that some people only TRUST in God in trying times. These verses help us realize that TRUSTing in God in all ways all days helps you focus your thoughts of the day on God. The personal growth would be to put down in writing the events where you Trusted in God and some of the times it was hard to Trust in God. Which of the times did you actually feel closer to God. Nothing is easy these days but it is truly amazing how Trusting in God in all your circumstances can help your perspective of your situation and focus your thinking differently.

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Sunday 01/18/2026.

Todays focus was on sin and not only how it effects us but how it might affect God. In Luke 6:12-17 it identifies how Jesus prayed all night long before calling all His disciples to him and picking the 12. In vs 16 it reads after the name of Judas Iscariot "a traitor." In John 6:70 - one of the apostles was identified by Jesus as a "devil." We wondered what it was like for Jesus to receive the kiss from Judas as the signal for the betrayal. Previously, when walking with Jesus, Judas had accepted what Jesus was teaching. And then something changed. We wondered how Jesus felt when he saw Judas change. After Judas betrayed Jesus something inside changed again. Judas knew he had sinned. He asked for forgiveness before he died. Judas was not the only one that betrayed Jesus - so did Peter. As we talked about these verses it was agreed that we are all sinners and there are times when human's know they are about to sin and do not walk away but do it anyway. Jesus's death on the cross took these sins. Our sins are forgiven even though it may hurt Jesus. We can TRUST in Jesus.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

There are many times when we have to make a very difficult decision. When we make a decision that is against the encouragement of how to live in the bible how much does it hurt Jesus? We have been encouraged to open our heart and our mind to what God would want us to do. If we need to talk with someone, search scriptures to help make a decision and look at how it might hurt God and sometimes even other people. Pray that you will get the guidance you need so that no one is hurt. Especially God.

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Sunday 01, 25, 2026

We took a look at 1 John 4:7-8,13-16. We even took time to look at different translations. For me it was awesome to know that no matter what translation you are using God's word is true for everyone. Today's focus was looking at God's Love. We concluded that God's love is deeper then we could imagine - it is a spirit of Love. As I thought about this I felt that I know God's love personally but do I really know intellectually what his spirit of love is like. I look forward to digging deeper into this concept.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

We were challenged to look this week on how our love is effecting our communities. We are to identify what our communities are and define the people in those communities. Our church focus is to be a bright guiding light for our community and help when we can.

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We will be digging deeper into our fellowship with our community this year. We have a heart for them and are working on being aware of what the community needs and how we can hopefully provide for that need. Please keep us in mind as you read this blog and pray that we would be that shining light and demonstrating the love of God to the best of our abilities.

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Sunday February 01, 2026

Today's message focus was titled "What does God want in connection to modesty." This is sometimes a difficult message for there are many different challenges to being modest. The first challenge is what measuring stick are we using. The bible helps us know how God would like us to present ourselves to others.

We looked at various scriptures - 1 Peter 3:3-5, 1 Timothy 2:8-11, 1 Cor 12:19-24 and Gen 2:29, 3:7.

As we discussed these scriptures and tried to tie it to today we agreed that many youth's outward appearance is related to the group of people they are trying to connect with. Some are trying to make a statement that I am unique. But as we discussed it the group were consistent in our desire to honor God in how we cloth ourselves. Be honest to who you are in God. Pay attention to the beauty within you.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

We were encouraged today to be an example on how to dress so people know you are trying to honor God.

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Sunday February 08, 2026

Today's message focus on Colossians 3:23.

This is a common message I have heard - What ever you do, do it with all your heart, as working for the Lord. Time was taken to look at what this means individually. We looked at Colossi and its influence as a port with many travelers. How has the appearance of others influenced our lives. How do we act at work, socially, or going to "Christian" events. Does it change? Why does it change? We looked at the story of David and Goliath. What a difference. But was David comfortable in doing the task in armor - no he had to be himself. Jesus worked as a carpenter. Did he honor His father as he did his tasks? Of course He did. What will it look like for you to bring a spirital content to your daily activities.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

We were encouraged this week to Identify one ordinary daily task. Can you worship God with this task?

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Sunday February 15, 2026

Today's message focus was on Devotion. We were encouraged to look at how we can increase, change, begin showing God more devotion. The main scripture we looked at was Psalm 1. As we looked through this we learn that the writer's delight/devotion to God is the law of the Lord. He medicated on it day and night. Time was taken to look at meditation and what can we do during meditation. We were given 9 different ideas on what to think about when meditating. Once the message was given we talked about devotion through meditation. There were comments about having 9 different things to think about - one person stated it was very overwhelming, another stated they would most likely pick one or two of the 9 and use those, others were grateful for the list and liked that they had a new way to focus. The summary of these is that the most important part during meditation is to think about God, His work and how we can share God with the world.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

We were encouraged to tell somebody about Jesus this week and during our quiet time/meditation time we would ask God to open the door to an opportunity to tell someone about God.

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Sunday February 22, 2026

Today our church went out into the community to a ministry event in another city close to our church building home. A meal was served, music to praise God and a message. The message was that of Ruth and how she became married and part of the line of David. after the message there was conversation with others and what they got out of the message. Two of our group are part of this ministry. It was fantastic to show them support in what they do and to participate in talking to people outside of our physical location.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

My personal reflection for growth is to continue to remember that the "Church of God" is everyone who has accepted Jesus as our Savior no matter where they are in the world and to pray for others and pray for opportunities to talk with people outside my own personal group. Reach out to others. Share Jesus with others.

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Sunday March 01, 2026

Morning everyone. Today's message was very special to me as I have sometimes put meaning to things that have been in correct. We took time looking at Psalm 2 today. This Psalm talks about how God the Father is giving Jesus the son the power to do what needs to be done when individuals and groups come against God. In verse 4 my translation states "The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them." In the past I looked at this differently but today I was able to see it in a healthy way. God has a plan. He has given us the bible to identify that plan. Today the world is having wars. We were encouraged in other verses to remember that God said there would be wars and rumors of wars. We talked about how the Holy Spirit reminds us to be wise in what we do, show respect to God in all we do. Take refuge in a relationship with God. We will all be judged at the final judgement. But God loves us all and wants us all to be with Him in heaven so as we talked about his delay in His return we were of a consensus that God's timing is His. He asks us to work the fields and get as many people into the kingdom before His final judgement. We are already giving all we need to do this it is just up to us to put feet to what we know and reach out to others.

May you all have a very blessed day/week.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

We were encouraged to pray for America, for the Church and for God's work to be done so that he can encourage us with "Well done, good and faithful servants."

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Sunday March 8, 2026

Today had the major event of changing our clocks. Did you get to church on time? Well, attendance was not a problem for us. We had a great message today that introduced us to the book of Amos. We looked at how he was different from some of the other people who were trained to give prophetic messages. Amos was a man of simple means. But God had him give a very challenging message. As we first looked at the various items that Amos talked about it was a consensus of our group that the message could be one delivered to God's Church now in 2026. We looked at many of the issues including but not limited to how we continue to fight "Social Injustice." The United States has groups of people who are very rich and some that are very poor. We don't really have a class system but we sure have a diversity in our financial picture. We were encouraged today to try to identify other biblical characters that may be like Amos. We came up with Moses, Jeremiah and Jonah. We had a great discussion.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

We were given the challenge to go deeper by looking internally at ourselves and see if we are an Amos - or should we be. Are we willing to do whatever God asks.? Are we willing to do something that doesn't make sense for us to do.? We were also encouraged to pray for God's Church world wide. May you have a great week.

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Sunday March 15, 2026

We spent time in Psalm 3 today. It's focus was looking at what David writes as he faces trouble between himself and his son Absalom. The message seemed to be very clear in that any time we a re facing challenges we are encouraged to rest in the Lord and trust that He is with us all the time. Extra verses that we looked at were Deut. 33:29, 2 Sam. 15:12-30, Prov. 3:24, Heb. 3:3-9 and 4:16. As we discussed this we were on united in how God has been with us in times of trouble. It is such a joy to have a community of believes that can be real with each other as we share our lives together. So remember God is our protector. He gives us rest when we take it.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

We are encouraged this week to pray for those around and throughout the world as well as preparing our hearts and minds for the upcoming celebration of Resurrection Sunday. To think about the sacrifice Jesus gave. The POWER in His Resurrection.

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Sunday March 22, 2026

Today's message was a focus on Judas and his kiss to identify Jesus. As we looked at Matthew 10:2-4 it was interesting that he was identified as "Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him." as we looked further at the history of Judas and his travels with Jesus and the other disciples we find that Jesus trusted Judas with the money. Judas was not from Galilee, he criticized Jesus for the wasting of perfume when Mary washes Jesus feet and he betrays Jesus. So the question was when did Satan influence / enter Judas? As we talked in the group there were thoughts shared that Judas did not start out bad. He rejoiced when he went into Galilee with the other disciples and he heard all of the teachings. In Luke 22:3 it talks of how Judas got paid for what he did. There was an agreement that this messages reminds us that it only takes a small opening for Satan to move us in the wrong direction.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

We were encouraged to take a deep look into yourself. Are there sins lurking under the radar? and to continue to think about what Jesus went through to finish the work He was called to do and how it effects us.

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Sunday March 29, 2026 - Palm Sunday

Today's focus was on the way there can be many different groups that have very different ideas. As we looked at Matthew 21:8-9, 12-16, 23. Matthew 26:14-16 and Luke 22:47-48 we saw how groups of people wanted Jesus to live, wanted him to die, praised him and wanted to kill him. We see how Jesus cleaned up the temple, healed the blind and the lame and corrected the Elders about allowing the children to praise Him. We saw how he challenged the Elders. It talks about the Last Supper, His time in prayer, being betrayed and then being killed. Each of these steps Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen. During our discussion we talked about the influence of groups and the psychology of people. We talked about how we have had events with group influence even today. How do we make a decision of which group to follow. We talked about how the events of this coming week had a lot of different influences. It was a sober meeting in that Jesus gave up so much to bring salvation to the world.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

We were asked to reflect on Jesus' journey, each step and how those steps have influenced us and effect us even now.

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Sunday April 5, 2026 - Resurrection Sunday

Today we got to celebrate the anniversary of Christ Rising From The Dead. What a wonderful privilege to be able to celebrate this day.

Today we looked at the events of the women finding the tomb empty and how there are simple differences between the Gospels. It does not diminish the fact that Jesus was not in the tomb anymore it is just different reports of what was seen. The things that did not change is there were angels involved and women were the first to see the empty tomb. As we talked about this we asked the question - How does the resurrection of Jesus change things? Besides that fact we were saved from eternal death away from God our lives continue to see changes as we learn more about Jesus and His Father we get to share this with anyone and everyone.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

Today's final challenges is: Reflect on the Greatest gift every given - your (our) salvation!

HAPPY RESURRECTION SUNDAY TO ALL!

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Sunday April 12, 2026

Today's title of our message is: HE IS RISEN .....so now what? It is interesting how many different denominations of groups have retreats, conferences special gatherings to enhance our walk with Jesus. As we look at different events such as in Acts 9:3-6 - The conversion of Saul to Paul, As in Prov. 11:14 - "For lack of guidance a nation falls, but many advisers make victory sure. and 2 Tim. 2:2 ....reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. We see that there are many ways to keep growing in Christ. There can be an event where you aren't even sure God is involved until after it has finished. We were all encouraged to recognize God is in every part of our lives as we have accepted the gift of salvation. We will continue to grow as we seek knowledge of Jesus. The group was again was somewhat sobered in that this is a huge idea. We don't have to depend on others to help others or ourselves grow but we can actually be an instrument that helps someone grow.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

Today's final Challenge is to identify a moment in your life that changed you ... besides salvation. Reflect on how God was involved.

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Sunday April 19, 2026

I was not available to hear our message this week. I did take time to read Psalm 8 and what a glorious Psalm. To have words to use to Praise God is glorious. I know that our group spent extra time to pray for various groups of people including the leaders of the United States. It is my personal encouragement that we continue to hold up the people whom God has allowed to be in office. It is what is required of us, to pray for them and continue to know that God has a plan.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

Today's encouragement is to pray for leaders of our political focus, our leaders in the churches all over the world and for our leaders of our own community, community churches and our own personal leaders in our home church. May you all have a blessed week.

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Sunday April 26, 2026

As we continue to focus on how the bible helps us follow God's plan in honoring Him by demonstrating behaviors that are different then the world may demonstrate we look today on our words.

We looked at James 3; Proverbs 18:21; Matthew 12:34 and other verses. In our discussion we looked at how words in the United States may not be known by others from a different country or have a different meaning. We looked at how we may say something we wish we could take back. We all agreed that we could be slow to speak.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

Today we are encouraged to be carful of our words especially as we tell others about Jesus, to listen to yourself . . . What do you hear? Do you like it? Does God like it? May God bless you this week as you Honor and Praise Him as you use your words.

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Sunday May 3, 2026

Today's topic was "Caring of the Poor and Disadvantaged" We looked at multiple Bible verses today. The main focus was on Psalm 9; 10-12 & 18. As we looked at ways to see the poor and disadvantages of biblical times compaired to today we see a different group of people in the United States. Today it seems that as much as groups have tried to help the poor and disabled they seem to just get pushed around in the system. Not all but definately some are not even seen. In biblical time their neighbors want them to have a better life. God created a way to bring some balance with the 7 year of forgiveness and the year of Jubilee. How would those look today.

We all seemed to agree that God's main point was that his heart has always been for the Poor & Disadvantaged.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

We have been encouraged to look at how we can apply todays lesson to Your life this week.

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Sunday May10, 2026 - Happy Mother's Day

Today we looked at special mother's in the bible. We acknowledged Mary - Mother of Jesus, Jocabed - Mother of Moses, Lois and Unis - Grandmother and mother of Timothy but we focused mainly on Hanna - Mother of Samuel.

In looking at Hanna we looked at what she sacrificed in asking God for a Son. As we dissuced this different things were discussed on how she prayed for a son, was given a son, and then gave him away. Both Mary and Jocabed also let go of their sons.

We thought about what it would be like to let go of something or someone we really cared for.

Reflecting on Personal Growth

Our encouragement for the week is to take 5 minutes ... all in a row ...Undisturbed ...undistracted. Sit quietly. Ask God to speak.....Listen.

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