Once there was a little boy who lived in a rural community with his mother, father and younger brother. This family was not affiliated with any church, and rarely attended religious services of any kind. In the summer, some neighbor children would invite this little boy and his younger brother to go with them to VBS at the church of Christ in the city. “Going to church” was a new and exciting experience for this little third-grade boy, and he would stand at the end of his driveway waiting for the neighbors to come by and pick him up. When […]

The apostle Paul shared his own personal experience in order to teach a lesson about contentment. He wrote, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content” (Phil. 4.11). How’s your day going? Just imagine being yelled at early in the morning, being talked down to, or perhaps bullied, at the beginning of your day. Can you now imagine just how these types of behavior might impact the rest of your day? Just imagine not feeling loved. Imagine seldom experiencing acts of kindness. Can you now imagine how your life, in […]

Keys. Those wonderful, important keys. They empower us. They open things that are otherwise off-limits to us. Keys open our boundaries and our possibilities. There is a sense of power in having the right keys, a sense of comfort and security. Joseph Bonomi describes the most ancient lock and key ever documented in his book, Nineveh and its Palaces. Bonomi observed this lock on a door in a palace at Khorsabad in Mesopotamia. It was a heavy wooden lock, a type that may still be seen in the East today. The key, also of wood, was of such dimensions that it had to be […]

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise (Hebrews 11.8-9) As youngsters, we all enjoyed reading the exciting adventures of our heroes: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, or The Adventures of Superman or Spiderman. Or how about Indiana Jones and “Raiders of the Lost Ark”? There’s […]

The prophet Isaiah informed his brethren just exactly it was that caused their spiritual separation from God: “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (Isa. 59.2). In our world of three dimensions, we understand nearness, distance and separation. Even simple pronouns such as “this and that,” and “these and those” are understood to convey nearness or distance. To convey the consequences of sin, Isaiah says that our sins have separated us from our Lord.  Separation from a loved one who is on some battlefield half way across […]

Consider: “The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away” (Matt. 13.20-21). There are many who have a good beginning as a Christian but then fizzle out like cheap fireworks on the fourth of July. I know the feeling. When I start too many projects it becomes so hard to finish any of them. I am usually reading three or […]

“Then the king said to him, ‘How many times must I adjure you to speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?’” (1 Kings 22.16 – nasu) Ahab was the wicked king of Israel, the husband of wicked Jezebel. He and the king of Judah wanted to reclaim territory taken by the king of Syria. They would not attack Syria without first consulting prophets. Many false prophets told the kings exactly what they wanted to hear: “Go up and take the land.” The king of Judah was suspicious and inquired whether there were any prophets […]

Jesus said, The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him (1 John 2.10-nau) One of the most common refrains in the Old Testament during the time of the divided kingdom was that the northern kingdom’s kings “caused Israel to sin.” This means these kings led the Lord’s people into idolatry, paganism and the immoral behavior associated with those things. The blame game is one of the worst forms of rationalization. If we can blame someone else for our wrongdoing, we don’t take responsibility for our actions, and we minimize the […]

Take a moment and contemplate Solomon’s statement in Proverbs 8.23: “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth was made.” If someone were to ask you what God created first, you would probably look at Genesis and say that “light” was the first created thing. And, when it comes to the creation of the physical universe that is true (Gen. 1.3-5). However, in another sense there was something “brought forth” long before God created the earth. In Proverbs we see “wisdom” personified: “When there were no depths, I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding […]

Paul encouragingly wrote: “According to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing shall I be put to shame, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life, or by death” (Phil. 1.20). Here is a moving quote I recently read:  “A man searched for a gift to give to a troubled, divided and despairing world. A gift to becalm the tormented soul of a world suffering from its own inhumanities; a token to radiate his unfailing hope for better things, for better times; a gesture, perhaps to give a […]