Category: CHRISTIAN LIFE
What Pastors Must Do, and How to Help Them
I once heard a pastor who preaches weekly to thousands confess that he and his fellow pastors were failing the members of their church. Yes, he teaches the Bible faithfully every week. Yes, a large number of people in the church are regularly sent out for...
What It Was Like: Geography and Culture Make a Difference
I recently returned from a trip to Israel. The purpose for the trip was to create mental images in the minds of my students of that part of the world where so much Bible history took place. As we hiked down Judean hills, traversed the barren...
Why You Don’t Read Your Bible
To go through life as a professing believer without taking in the Word of God is like trying to drive across the country without a road. You won’t make it. It’s like saying, “I’m not really interested in God at all.” People who don’t have any...
Your Best Life … Later
In his best-selling book, Your Best Life Now, TV preacher and mega-church pastor, Joel Osteen, writes: “God wants this to be the best time of your life” (p. 5). According to Osteen, God wants everybody to have financial success, physical health, and social comfort, in this...
You and God’s Law: How’s the Relationship Going?
God’s true people are saved by His grace, but they are distinguished from the rest by their relationship with His moral standard of conduct as revealed in Scripture—His law. Those who are truly His people have always been known for their affectionate submission to His authority...
When God Moves Kings: The Second Exodus
As Moses climbed down the craggy face of Mt. Horeb, you might say he was awestruck. He had just been speaking to a bush engulfed in flames, to the angel of the Lord, and had reluctantly agreed to the impossible task of leading Israel out of...
One Another Commands
Be at peace with one another. Mk. 9:50 Wash one another’s feet. Jn. 13:14 Love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Jn. 13:34 Love one another with brotherly affection. Rom. 12:10 Outdo one another in showing honor....
Praying for the Persecuted
The deadliest attack on Christians in the history of Pakistan happened last week. The death toll has reached 85, with 120 wounded. Two suicide bombers entered the worship service in a building that has stood since 1883, and set off explosives containing ball bearings. Children, wives,...
Reading Scripture Rightly
When reading a section of Scripture, we will find that a passage almost always comes across weighted on one side of an issue or another. I mean this: a passage is written intended to drive a certain point home, aimed at a particular audience, for a...
Seven Truths About Knowing God
Much is often taught about the importance of having a “personal relationship” with God through His Son Jesus Christ. Believers frequently contrast the terms “religion” and “relationship” when explaining the difference between that which is merely outward and formal, and that which is spiritual and true....
