Many children might prefer not to attend such events. Many adults feel the same way. But maturity means learning to fulfill our duties toward others even when it costs us time, comfort, or convenience. This is one of the great lessons our modern world desperately lacks. We are constantly told to organize life around personal... Continue Reading

These days can pass miserable and empty. We need satisfaction; we need it early, and we find it, if we find it, in his steadfast love. No matter what our days contain, if they are contained within his love, we can be glad all our days. So many turn their vessel toward what they think... Continue Reading

When things get hard, as they certainly will and do, it’s completely normal for us to look left and right before we look up. But even looking up doesn’t ensure that we’re looking at the right things to help us. The psalmist here is the perfect example. The road to the Holy City has become... Continue Reading

This is the covenant name, the personal name. It was as YHWH that God promised Abraham the Land. And now it is YHWH who will fulfill that promise. Moses can’t possibly have missed that connection, either at the time or (perhaps) decades later when he wrote the Torah. After identification comes the call to mission.... Continue Reading

Though God is plainly visible through what he has made, and though he has made himself clearly available to us in Scripture, men seek after that which is foolish and even unnatural, and in return, they end up in utter ruin. More than this, they ask others to join in their foolishness. They try to... Continue Reading

It didn’t take long to realize that I had the ability to achieve most of what I set out to achieve. Being raised by a dad who had overcome much hardship and exhibited uncompromising strength encouraged me to be a woman of determination and confidence. If I ever told my dad of some grandiose plan,... Continue Reading

 The Bible is the sword of the Spirit, and there is immense power in it. The most loving thing we can do for anyone else is read the Bible with them and help them understand the message from God in it. And the way we continue to grow in the faith is through staying in... Continue Reading

In the Old Testament, the sons of God (believers) were mainly from the nation of Israel, which God selected from all the nations to be His chosen people (Deuteronomy 7:6).  However, the Old Testament prophesied of a time when Gentiles would also be adopted as sons of God.  Hosea 1:10 states, “Yet the number of... Continue Reading

As you grow in your conformity to the law of God, you grow in Christlikeness.  As you grow in your manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit, you demonstrate God’s transforming power and the very nature of God.  As you are changed from “one degree of glory to the next” you are “glorifying” God!  ... Continue Reading

As we seek to be led by the Spirit, carefully following his guidance, we’re not just discerning our outward actions but also our inward motivations. In this task we need God’s Word to guide us and to instruct us on the right path.   Read: Galatians 5:16-25 I am not a Christian perfectionist because the... Continue Reading

We need to grasp that key foundation to the work of the Spirit. We still confuse power, charisma, the big and spectacular, gifting, with true spirituality.  Instead we need to see the Holy Spirit at work always leads us to hear and see that Jesus is Lord.   We all know it. And yet again... Continue Reading

The world as originally made was very good, but sin has radically corrupted it. Nevertheless, though sin pervades everything so that nothing is left untouched or remains completely pure, things may be distorted, but they are not as bad as they might ever be.   As we read the first three chapters of Genesis, several... Continue Reading

Whatever else may be true about you today, if you belong to Him, you are loved, redeemed, adopted, held, and destined for a world in which the things that have wounded you will no longer have the power to wound anyone again.   There are seasons when sickness feels less like something happening to me... Continue Reading

Paul says that when believers live without grumbling and disputing, they stand out “as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life” (Philippians 2:15–16). What if that described us?   It’s noticeable. In almost every conversation I find myself in, the conversation eventually moves toward complaint. If you don’t believe me, listen... Continue Reading

Halloween can teach us to trivialize the spiritual realm, and make light of what is serious. In far more troubling cases, it can begin to blur the line of good and evil, and muddy our hearts perception of that which is worthy of our affections, and that which should be rejected.   Our family does... Continue Reading

Trust God. He will do a better job of dispensing justice than you will. In the meantime, do good to those who hurt you. The result is that you will heap burning coals on their heads.   Big Idea: When faith brings hostility, bless, pursue peace, and leave justice to God. Imagine someone taking a... Continue Reading

The Spirit illumines us to the meaning of Scripture, not only so our minds will grasp the meaning, but so that meaning will permeate our lives and transform us from the inside-out. God has given the Spirit to Christians so we might know, understand, and experience the things He has freely given us in the... Continue Reading

There is tension and mystery in the relationship between the divine and the human in the choices we make. Scripture usually emphasizes the divine or the human side of the equation. Sometimes both perspectives are placed side by side. In either case, the two always go together. God is completely sovereign, and we are responsible... Continue Reading

Christians are no longer characterized by hypocrisy.…salvation entails a genuine inward change so that a person’s outward religious life matches, to a significant degree, what is happening on the inside.   You’ve heard it before. One reason people give for not being a Christian is that the “church is full of hypocrites.” Why believe the... Continue Reading

The study of church history informs us about our predecessors in the faith, those who have helped shape our Christian communities and thus make us what we are.   Human beings are historical beings. Our lives are inextricably tied to the past, our own immediate past obviously but also that of other humans. As V.... Continue Reading