My Friend,
No matter what you face each day, let me encourage you to make prayer a priority. Make it your first response and not an afterthought.Friday, September 15, 2023
Pray At All Times!
Thursday, August 24, 2023
He Is Your Rock!
My Friend,
My hope is that none of us has to hit rock bottom in order to discover that God truly is our Rock.
I pray that no matter where you are today in life, that you rest in the truth that He alone is your Rock no matter what!
He is your firm and true foundation, so seek Him as your foundation and trust Him as your foundation.
Take time to read, study, and take to heart Matthew 7:24-27, Ephesians 2:19– 21, and 1 Peter 2:6 for starters.
You are in my prayers. Please pray for me as well. 🙏🏼
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Randolph Koch
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Wednesday, January 15, 2020
A Clean Slate
If you are in Christ, you need to remember that your Heavenly Father has given you a clean slate.
As a part of this clean slate, He does not hold your sins against you.
I have to ask though, since He doesn't hold your sins and past against you, why do you hold on to them or hold on to your past sometimes?
Friend, It's times to really walk in the new life He's given you.
As part of this, if you're holding on to things, remember that you've experienced His forgiveness and you need to lay it all down at His feet.
You also need to forgive yourself as He's already forgiven you!
You are completely forgiven!
I have to ask though, since He doesn't hold your sins and past against you, why do you hold on to them or hold on to your past sometimes?
Friend, It's times to really walk in the new life He's given you.
As part of this, if you're holding on to things, remember that you've experienced His forgiveness and you need to lay it all down at His feet. You also need to forgive yourself as He's already forgiven you!
I pray that you take these truths to heart in Jesus name.
Your Brother and Servant in Christ,
Randolph Koch
Monday, May 20, 2019
Faith, Mountains, and Molehills.
There's the old saying you might be familiar with that is, "Making mountains out of a molehills".
Unfortunately, we as people of faith who know God's truth (or should), can still fulfill this old saying instead of fulfilling God's Word by responding in faith.
Due to our fear, doubt, forgetting the basic tools God has given us, as well as being guilty of overthinking, we can often create our own mountains and obstacles where there are none. Or, we can take the problems and obstacles at hand and make them far larger than they really are.
Instead of responding in faith, we can go straight to fear, doubt, anxiety and more which always clouds our vision of God's truth.
In contrast, God's Word reminds us that our faith can move mountains. (Read Matthew 17:20)
Monday, February 25, 2019
The Fruit of The Spirit - Self-Control
They put themselves first.
- The ability for you and I to say no the things which aren’t good for us or others.
- The ability and desire to put off the old life and put on the new.
- The denial of our selfish desires and the striving after God’s purpose, plan and will.
He was asked by an interviewer about his passions for climbing mountains. He gave this reply: "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."
Another rampant thing in our world is immorality and as follower's of Christ, we're called to flee immorality which also (See 1 Corinthians 6:18) takes self-control...and sometimes in life…you will not only have to figuratively flee…but you may have to physically flee what it is that is detrimental to you.
In order to successfully grow you need to also abide in Christ each day! You need to own your growth and pursuit of Christ.
This may sound hard nosed but, sometimes this is exactly what you need to do successfully grow!
Let me also encourage you to be tenacious and own your words, actions and thoughts.
The Fruit of The spirit results in a change in our mind, behavior, and character that comes about because of the Holy Spirit's Work in us!
As we close this series of posts out, I realized it's been far too long so I thought it was finally time to finish The Fruit of The Spirit Series after refocusing my time on other projects back to this one briefly. :-)
- https://www.ashepherdsheart.org/2016/09/the-fruit-of-spirit-get-ready-to-grow.html
- Love: https://www.ashepherdsheart.org/2016/10/the-fruit-of-spirit-love.html
- Joy: https://www.ashepherdsheart.org/2016/10/the-fruit-of-spirit-joy.html
- Peace: https://www.ashepherdsheart.org/2016/11/the-fruit-of-spirit-peace.html
- Patience: https://www.ashepherdsheart.org/2017/03/the-fruit-of-spirit-patience.html
- Kindness: https://www.ashepherdsheart.org/2018/08/the-fruit-of-spirit-kindness.html
- Goodness: https://www.ashepherdsheart.org/2018/08/the-fruit-of-spirit-goodness.html
- Faithfulness: https://www.ashepherdsheart.org/2018/09/the-fruit-of-spirit-faithfulness.html
- Gentleness: https://www.ashepherdsheart.org/2018/10/the-fruit-of-spirit-gentleness.html
Friday, December 21, 2018
Merry Christmas From A Shepherd's Heart 2018!
https://youtu.be/6l9g5cLN_Hg
Merry Christmas from A Shepherd's Heart!
Here's a reading of Luke 2:1-35 (Begins about 28 seconds in) with a little Christmas music.
I hope you have a wonderful time celebrating the birth of Christ.
Merry Christmas,
Your Brother and Servant In Christ,
Randolph Koch
-Founder and Servant-Shepherd of A Shepherd's Heart
https://www.ashepherdsheart.org
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Free Resource From A Shepherd's Heart For Celebrating Advent!
I absolutely love Christmas time and incorporating an Advent into the time of celebration can be a fantastic way to help focus our hearts, worship, and celebration on the birth of Christ - The reason we celebrate CHRISTmas in the first place!
I created a Celebrating Advent guide, that is written from a non-denominational Christian perspective, as a simple tool/guide/starting point to help guide you in your observance.
This resource is perfect to use as an individual, with family and friends or for your local church body as well to celebrate together!
As you'll see, there is practical information about Advent, instructions to guide you each week of Advent including suggested Scriptures and Prayers you can use or you can obviously do your own prayers and dive further into the scriptures as well.
Download your free copy today via this link: Celebrating Advent
No matter what, have fun, make it personal as you approach Him with a humble and thankful heart!
Have a great Christmas and Advent celebration as you celebrate the birth of Christ!
Please check out this resource and tell your friends about it as well as we seek to follow Christ and keep Him in the center of our Christmas celebration!
Because He is The reason for the season,
Randolph Koch
-Founder and Servant-Shepherd of A Shepherd's Heart
P.S. If you haven't heard, excited to share that 2 of my Christmas Devotionals just went live in in the YouVersion Bible App and Website!
Here are the links to both plans!
Christmas: The Promise Fulfilled.
https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/13399-christmas-the-promise-fulfilled
The Wonder of Christmas.
https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/13380-the-wonder-of-christmas
Friday, October 12, 2018
The Fruit of The Spirit - Gentleness
As follower's of Christ, we need to remember that there's a direct correlation to the fruit we bear and our conduct as our conduct is the evidence of the fruit we bear.
- Gentleness is an attitude of the mind and heart.
- Gentleness puts God & Others First.
- Gentleness allows us to be more caring toward others.
- Gentleness is shown through our response toward others.
- Gentleness is also shown through being humble – humility.
- Gentleness and humility are closely connected in God’s Word.
He possessed power beyond measure yet He said learn from Him as He’s Gentle. So, look to Him as your example in all things. Immeasurable strength and power and yet displays gentleness toward us.
In John 13:4-17 Jesus washes the disciples’ feet in an act of gentleness and humility.
We also see it in John 4 when He spoke to the Woman at the well. Or John 8:1-11 when He spoke to the woman caught in adultery.
To clarify, I don’t want to you think that I’m painting Jesus like some do as a pacific or wimpy, rather, He was far from that. There were times when Jesus was very assertive because He needed to speak directly to people and did so in a very blunt way and He has power and authority to do so but this doesn’t negate His amazing example of Gentleness for us.
- Do I seek to teach others and am I teachable?
- Is my life a reflection of a worthy calling?
- Do I conduct myself with humility and gentleness?
Randolph Koch
Friday, September 28, 2018
The Fruit of The Spirit - Faithfulness
This is especially true when we see these supposed leaders seeking to tear down others and attempt to malign the character of others.
None of the above are what faithfulness is.
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
2 Thessalonians 3:3 - But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.
1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Philippians 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
John 14:16 - And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.
John 14:26 - But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
"Our heavenly Father is a very experienced One. He knows very well that His children wake up with a good appetite every morning … He sustained 3 million Israelite's in the wilderness for 40 years. We do not expect He will send 3 million missionaries to China; but if He did, He would have ample means to sustain them all … Depend on it, God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply."
"Faith moves, faith takes action, faith does things, faith makes a difference in the way your life is lived." –Pastor Rich Jones
Practice being faithful and one of the practical ways you can do so is by keeping your commitments.
Be faithful in everything!
As followers of Christ, Faithfulness should be one of the ear marks of our lives as God through His Holy Spirit continues to help us grow in this Fruit of The Spirit.
Let's pray for one another that God will help us continue to grow in The Fruit of The Spirit of Faithfulness and that we'll strive to be faithful in all we do for His Kingdom and Glory.
Your Brother and Servant in Christ,
Randolph Koch