The story is told of a man who liked to just open his Bible and read the first verse that came to him as though it were a message of God directly to him. The first verse he happened to turn to was Matthew 27:5, which says Judas “went away and hanged himself.” Since he was not sure how this verse applied…

Have you ever had a bad day as a Christian?  Have you ever suffered some slight, some insult, some mild form of persecution because of your faith?  (“Mild” in comparison to what we read of New Testament Christians suffering.)  Have you ever allowed that experience to be magnified out of proportion to the point that it became “the worst thing ever” or…

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…

“Jealousy” usually has a very negative connotation to it, and rightfully so, as the Lord includes “jealousy” in His list of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21.  Since “those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God,” this is a matter deserving our careful attention! However, Paul introduces us to a “godly jealousy” in 2 Corinthians 11:2. …

A man comes walking through a small hamlet that has been hit with the plague. He pushes a cart full of the dead and cries, “Bring out your dead!” As he passes one house, a young man comes out dragging an old man, feeble and pale, and starts to put him on the cart. The old man protests, “But I’m not quite…

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…

How often do our mouths get us in trouble?  All too often, I’m afraid!  These fires of deadly poison (Jas. 3:6, 8) have tremendous power (Prov. 18:21) and will have a tremendous impact on our eternal destinies (Matt. 12:36-37). In this technological age, our “words” are not limited to the utterances that come from our vocal cords, but they include the communications…