There are some seriously tough jobs out there!  (Mike Rowe, who hosted the television show, “Dirty Jobs,” would likely call that an understatement!)  From coal mining to sewer cleaning to prison wardens, there are certain jobs in this world that just take a little more courage, stamina and prayer-power to accomplish. Add to that list (and just go ahead and put it…

We don’t have a temple today—we are the temple (2 Cor. 6:16).  From the book of Acts, we know it was a practice of the early church to meet at the temple or somewhere on the temple mount and publicly proclaim the message of Christ.  Another meeting place for the early church was the home. Look at these passages from the book…

The following is not a story thought up by an imaginative preacher simply to illustrate a point. It really happened. She often sat in the auditorium, and as the preacher delivered his message, her young children noticed that she often wept. When one of them asked her why she was crying she said, “I come here every week, and I am starving…

Sometimes, when something is so obvious and so basic, we often will not give much attention to it and lose sight of its place in our lives.  However, it is often those things that are the most obvious and the most basic that we need to be reminded of on a regular basis, in order to help us stay focused on what…

Sometimes we fail to see the big picture of our place in the kingdom of God. We look at those who are so talented and think that whatever talent we have is so miniscule that we have nothing to give to Him. We look at others who are blessed materially and wonder if God could ever use what we have. The words…

Sometimes we grow so accustomed to things being the way we’ve always known them to be that we cannot think of doing them any other way.  I remember pulling up to a gas station several years ago and a man asking me what kind of gas I wanted and if I wanted my windshield cleaned.  Having spent most of my life in…

I think everyone has said this at some point in their lives, “But they started it!” It usually involves a “tit for tat” or “an eye for an eye” situation that escalated into something much more. What we are saying is the evil that I have done is justified because they started it. In that moment, we have been overcome with evil.…

To describe the complete cleansing that takes place when one is baptized, it is sometimes stated that one arises from the waters of baptism “as clean as a newborn baby.”  And that is so true, not pertaining to an outward cleansing but to a soul cleansing.  Consider how the Bible portrays this. In baptism, a cleansing takes place. The love of Jesus…