How Long Has It Been?
Believe me, I don’t ask any of these questions from moral high ground. I need just as many reminders (3 Peter 3:1) and provocations (Hebrews 10:24) as the person who listens to me on Sunday. These questions help me, and I hope they help you, to sharpen our focus on what really matters: serving God […]
How Is Your Worship?
Many are so busy creating, attending, and depending on emotionally- charged, party-like religious activities to create a “spiritual high” that they do not feel any real benefit from participation in the activities of the local churches where they attend. For the most part the activities of the local church are “quiet times” for Christians to […]
Take Up Your Cross, Unless …
You’ve got the sniffles. You’ve got a ballgame. You’re visiting a friend or a friend visits you. And so on and so on. Simply put, “sacrifice” is “an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy”. Jesus eloquently spoke of it as “taking up your […]
Help From Above May Come Through Those Below
Obviously, God is omnipotent (all-powerful), and can do anything He wants. But it’s also true that sometimes He elects to act through agents — even human ones. As great and powerful as the gospel is, it is often carried and dispersed through “earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7) — as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:20, […]
Paul’s Travel Toward Imprisonment and Affliction
Acts 20 records Paul’s activities when he finished his work in Ephesus and then traveled to Jerusalem with other brethren. There was so much Paul was busy doing during those weeks that the historian did not mention (which is understandable), but had he done so, Acts 19-20 would have been full of the writing of […]