18 October 2026
· Dr. Franklin Watts
Acts 15:36–41
The second half of Acts 15 tells a sad but instructive story: Paul and Barnabas, two mature and godly men, split over whether John Mark — who had deserted them in Pamphylia — deserved a second chance. Dr. Franklin Watts draws the contrast plainly. Barnabas the encourager was people-oriented and looked at the man; Paul was task-oriented and looked at the work ahead and the risk. The disagreement was so sharp there was no resolution in sight, and they parted ways. The same clash of temperament, he observes, plays out in our churches, our marriages, our homes and our workplaces — and it is worth
11 October 2026
· Dr. Franklin Watts
Ephesians 2:1–9
A pause in the armor-of-God series for the subject on the church marquee: forgiving yourself. Dr. Franklin Watts argues that many Christians who genuinely believe God has forgiven them still refuse to stop punishing themselves — and he tells the story of Julie, a young mother whose counselor urged her to repress and bury her guilt until it festered into something that nearly cost her child's life. What she needed was not a psychiatric bandage over the wound but real forgiveness, and only God could give it. Her error was her picture of God: she knew His holiness but could not see His overwhelmi
4 October 2026
· Dr. Franklin Watts
· The Whole Armor of God
Ephesians 6:10–13
Paul's call to arms turns to the enemy's chief battleground: the mind. Dr. Franklin Watts shows that Satan's great characteristic is subtlety — "more subtle than all the beasts of the field" — and that he concentrates his attack on man's greatest endowment, the capacity to think and reason. He blinds minds to the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4), darkens the understanding (Ephesians 4:18), and sets the carnal mind against God (Romans 8:7). What, then, is the armor? Not titanium, nothing physical, and nothing you can hand to another person: "the armor consists mainly of knowledge" — the knowledge of
27 September 2026
· Dr. Franklin Watts
· The Whole Armor of God
Ephesians 6:10–13
Before a single piece of armor is named, Paul gives two commands — and Dr. Franklin Watts takes up the first: "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might." It is in the imperative: a command, not a suggestion. Why must we be strong in Him? Because of who we are — not free agents or isolated units, but members of the body of Christ, to be accepted warts and all. Because of what we are — weak in ourselves, as the failures of Abraham, Moses and the greatest saints attest; no one should pretend the Christian life is easy. And because of who He is — "the name of the LORD is a strong tower
20 September 2026
· Dr. Franklin Watts
· Spiritual Warefare Preparedness
Ephesians 6:10–18
If you are a Christian, you have been drafted — a soldier in God's army whether you feel like it or not — and the ground rules are His, not ours. Opening Paul's call to arms in Ephesians 6, and drawing on his own National Guard days, Dr. Franklin Watts presses three things home. The enemy is real: the devil's first strategy is persuading a sophisticated age that he does not exist. The battle is not only the fallen nature within us but a real enemy outside us — "principalities and powers." And the fighting is ours to do: "Who puts on the armor? You. Who stands? You." Against the popular "let go
6 September 2026
· Dr. Franklin Watts
Matthew 6:16–18, Isaiah 6:8
A heartfelt call to prayer and fasting. Opening from Jesus' teaching in Matthew 6:16–18, the message sets aside "fancy theology" for a word to the heart: in the face of the moral and spiritual crisis of our day, believers are called not to despair but to hope and disciplined action. We are in a spiritual battle — so make yourself available to God ("Here am I, Lord — send me"), pray even for the salvation of those who oppose us, and learn to pray in "crisis mode": prayer joined with fasting. An honest, hopeful challenge to seek God with renewed urgency, now rather than "tomorrow."