Today’s Scripture passage corrects two modern myths. When hearing a warning about professing Christians who are in error, occasionally someone will say, ‘I know they don’t believe or live like you do, but they ARE Christians, so just get along.’ First, it may be that they are fellow-believers. Then again, that…
You’ve seen it before. ‘Men. You just can’t figure them out!’ Accompanied with the roll of eyes and a knowing look, two women might express their frustration at not being able to grasp why men do what they do. Or two fellows might say something similar about females. Taxpayers doubt the wisdom of our…
As Epaphras prayed for his church family, there was one request the Apostle Paul heard him make repeatedly. What was that request? ‘Lord, take away their pains and heal all their ailments’? No, that wasn’t his prayer request. ‘Lord, make them prosperous, happy and…
Joy is not the result of good news, a happy mood, feeling great, or being on ‘easy street.’ Joy is found in being rightly related to the Lord. When the kids are sick, the pain is intense, a relationship is shattered, or the…
When Paul desired someone to make a dangerous journey to Philippi, he couldn’t find volunteers who were willing to deny themselves life’s comforts. But there was one man. Timothy was exceptional. While most of us seek our own things, Timothys seek the things of Jesus Christ. It is natural to seek…
Words have great power. The Lord says death and life are in the power of the tongue. Many is the person who has been driven to great extremes because of something that was said. Here our Lord says that Christians who have put on the new man harness…
The Apostle Paul says, in effect, ‘I’m NOT some great Christian preacher.’ We’d probably all disagree with him there. If there was a ‘Who’s Who’ of celebrity Christians, surely Paul would headline it. He says, ‘The reality is, I’m the LEAST of all saints. Don’t think…
Last weekend at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, on the second to last lap, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez collided, crashing into the wall at high speed. They had both made a good start. An hour and a half of spectacular racing had put them both within reach of the podium. But on the 50th lap, in a…
The law of Moses has a profound effect in Israel today. On a recent trip there we saw the restrictions that observant Jews still live under. We watched as a kosher diet was strictly observed. On the sabbath, elevator buttons were disabled so that one would not be guilty of lighting a fire on the sabbath. The light rail did not operate. A public piano was placed…
Mere hours after 14 year old Michael Carneal took a gun to his Kentucky high school and killed three of his classmates and injured five others, surviving classmates put up a sign that said, ‘We forgive you, Mike!’ But is that a righteous response? Are we required to forgive those who are…
How often have you heard a table-tennis conversation? A table-tennis conversation is where someone shares an experience that they had, and the other person responds with a similar experience that they had, and then the first person sort of carries on with their…
This letter was written to a church family in Corinth. 572 kilometres north of them was the church of Thessalonica. 160 kilometres further north was the church of Philippi. These last two churches were collectively referred to as ‘the churches of Macedonia’ in verse 1. They had heard of heavy…
