I queried an older man who had become a dear friend with a pointedly stark question: what is your purpose in life? He is advanced in years. He ought to know by now. The question struck home, and he teared up trying to answer it.  He failed. He had nothing much to say. And he […]

“Just as sure as sparks fly upward, likewise man is born for trouble” (Job 5:7). All of us are either coming out of a trial, in the midst of a trial, or will soon be going into a trial. When suffering comes, where will we find the strength to endure without sinning? More than that, […]

We probably all have a story of accidentally leaving a child behind somewhere. Maybe you arrived home from church with one less child. I once knew a guy who left his wife behind at a rest stop. Accidentally. When twelve-year-old Jesus was left behind at the temple, we can imagine the words exchanged between Mary […]

Well, it’s the new year. We made it around the sun again. The inhabitants of Earth make the full circuit once every year—365.25 days, or 365 days and 6 hours (which explains why we observe Leap Year and add a day every four years). If you are 45 years old, you have made 45 trips […]

Believers suffer for the benefit of other suffering believers.  Paul told the Corinthians that the affliction he and his team experienced in Asia was so difficult that “we despaired of life itself. Indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death” (2 Cor 1:8b-9a). God had a purpose, though: “But that was to […]

Perhaps you have heard the gospel before. But you have not yet come to Jesus or believed in him to save you. What can you do? First, hear the gospel again and be sure you understand who Jesus is, what he has done to deliver sinners, and how you must respond to be rescued. Speak […]

Ishmael must stay awake. He sits at the gate to the entrance of the Bushbaby Lodge in Uganda. Whenever anyone departs or arrives, he opens the gate. He must stay awake because he never knows when anyone will arrive. They could come in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in […]

Consider the words of Psalm 130:3-4.  3 If you, O LORD, should mark Iniquities,       O LORD, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness,       that you may be feared. Three important truths stand out in this short passage: First, everyone is guilty of sin and worthy of […]

You may be grieving the death of a fellow believer who was close to you. It might be a dear family member or cherished friend. Whether in the distant past or more recently, they passed away, and you began the natural grieving process. God does not want you, as a follower of Christ, to grieve […]