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What’s your Plan?
Parents often tell their children to plan ahead, and they try to encourage them. You often see adults asking children what they want to be when they grow up. In business, it is understood that goals and a vision need to be written down with a plan of action. As the old saying goes, if you don’t write it down, you don’t have a goal, only a dream. What about your soul? Do you continually keep God in the front…
Our Spiritual Hearing Aid
Joshua, a precocious 2-year-old, watched his mother baking cookies. “Please, may I have one?” he asked hopefully. “Not before supper,” his mother replied. Joshua ran tearfully to his room, then reappeared with this message: “Jesus just told me it’s okay to have a cookie now.” “Jesus didn’t tell me!” his mother retorted, to which Joshua replied, “You must not have been listening!” Joshua’s motivation was wrong, but he was absolutely right about two things: In 1 Samuel 3:9, another young…
Christianity Demands More
The story is told of a man who was arrested for getting involved in a drunken brawl at a bar. When it came time for this man’s court appearance, the judge asked, “Sir, what do you have to say for yourself?” The man looked directly at the judge and said, “Your honor, I’m not guilty. My reputation in this community is spotless.” The judge then asked, “Sir, do you have anyone who can vouch for your character?” The man looked…
Do you have true faith, hope and love?
The apostle Paul frequently emphasized “faith, hope and love” in his letters (Colossians 1:4-5; 2 Thessalonians. 1:3-4; Tit. 2:2; etc.). Paul was thankful for the brethren’s “steadfastness of hope.” Their hope was not merely a matter of the heart. Paul was thankful that they had hope in their heart. Grammatically, their hope produced steadfastness (a Greek word that indicates persistent endurance). Of course, that is what true hope does. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is…
Kindness
Expressing kindness is such a little thing, yet it means so much. An anonymous writer has well said: “The ministry of kindness is a ministry which may be achieved by all men, rich and poor, learned and illiterate. Brilliance of mind and capacity for deep thinking have rendered great service to humanity, but by themselves they are impotent to dry a tear or mend a broken heart.” Despite his busy schedule during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln often visited the…
5 Warnings for Christmas
1 Timothy 6:1-10, 17-18 1 All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. 2 Those who have believing masters should not show them disrespect just because they are fellow believers. Instead, they should serve them even better because their masters are dear to them as fellow believers and are devoted to the welfare of their slaves. These are the things you…
The LORD is my Shepherd
I. “The Lord is My Shepherd; I shall not want” (23:1). A. Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1-7). Here Jesus pictures human beings as sheep that God cares about. He wants to keep them and bring them back to Him when they are lost. This is what Jesus does for those willing to accept the gospel. B. The Good Shepherd (John 10:1-11). Jesus is the entrance to protect for the sheep and the shepherd of the sheep. But we must also note…
Will He Find You Faithful?
When speaking of His eventual return to judge the world and transport the church to heaven, Jesus had only one question expressed in Luke 8:8, “…when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” When applied in personal terms this question becomes, “When Jesus returns, will He find you faithful?” The Bible teaches us that the return of Christ and the end of the world will come suddenly and without any warning (Luke 12:40; Rev. 3:3).…
Faith is the Victory
I like winning. If you know me well, you don’t need me to tell you that. I’ll take winning over losing any day of the week. I don’t know if I will see another Detroit Tigers world championship in my lifetime. But I do know I will see my victory over sin and death. I’m seeing little victories now, but full and permanent victory is on the way. That’s the faith talking. We read in 1 John 5:4-5, “For whatever…
Why Study God’s Word?
Just as we eat 3 meals a day to sustain our physical bodies, we must also feast on God’s word weekly to sustain our souls. If we don’t, we are in danger of losing our souls. God says in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” People will be lost because they did not care enough to read and study God’s instruction book on how to go to Heaven. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:10 that…
Pure of Heart
Pure of Heart King David asks: “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?” His answer is simple: “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart” (Psalms 24:3-4). Building upon this a thousand years later, James clarifies David’s proclamation: “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8) to emphasize a single-minded focus. Purity Purity is a familiar word indicating a product to be unadulterated by other…
A Changed Heart
As parents, our ultimate goal in training and disciplining our children is to imbed within their hearts a desire to do what is right. Mind you, there is some necessity to instill a fear of punishment/consequences to initially turn the stubborn will of the human nature towards obedience. The scripture encourages us by saying: Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him.” Proverbs 22:15. However, in modern times,…