Paul’s last letter was to Timothy, Paul’s son in the faith and a younger preacher who had been the apostle’s companion. Read the following words carefully, and discover a problem many Christians face. “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of…

Is there anything more touching than the following story? She sits alone in one of the finest houses to be found. Her husband is dead. He had been so successful and provided for her and her needs after his death. Her phone is by her side, but it rarely rings. Her children never call. She would give anything to hear from them.…

An American tradition is that if you have a rabbit’s foot good luck will come your way. I am not sure where this idea originated, but mankind has so often looked to find a magic potion or icon of some sort that will help them in times of trouble—think of four-leaf clovers or crystals as examples of this. The Jews thought they…

I once heard of a Christian having a Bible study with a friend about what one must do to be saved. He opened his Bible and urged the friend to read several passages which clearly revealed God’s plan of salvation. The friend’s reply was, “There are none of these verses in my Bible.” She went and got her Bible, and she was…

I will never forget that cottonwood tree just outside the back door of the house I lived in for my entire childhood. It was where we built our treehouse and where the ropes for young “Tarzans” and swings for young children were anchored. But, the best memory I have of that tree was that several times every week we “played church” in…

I remember when I was a child hearing Christians misuse the King James rendering of Peter’s words in 1 Peter 2:9. “You are a peculiar people.” Whenever there was a social misfit or a person “whose eyeballs don’t line up with the holes in his head,” someone would say, “Well the Bible says we are to be peculiar, and he is the…

Christians in that first-century world faced such great challenges. The pagan world had such a profound impact on mankind that even their religions were given over to sensuality. When men became Christians there was an immediate change which the former friends could not understand. Peter described this when he said, “For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the…

Solomon is often called the wisest man in the Bible. As a youth, he asked God to give him wisdom, and our amazing God answered his prayer abundantly. “All the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart” (1 Kings 10:24). If we want to share in this wisdom from heaven, we must…