Life is so hard—harder for some than for others.  Sometimes there are “ups” and then we get hit with “downs.”  When those “downs” come, what can we do?  Better asked, “What should we do?” In the Old Testament, the prophet Elijah experienced “ups” and “downs.”  As a prophet of God, he did great miracles to point people to the power and the…

The Bible is characterized by the summation of eternal, great truths in short paragraphs. We make the mistake of reading these verses without giving thought to the astounding truths found in them. One of these passages is the summation of the life of Jesus in six short phrases and written by Paul to Timothy (1 Tim. 3:16). The passage begins with these…

There used to be these things called magazines, paper publishing that came out monthly. In some of those magazines that targeted women and teen girls there were tests. Some of the popular ones were: “Does your crush secretly love you?” or “Are you really best friends?” and “Which Disney princess are you?” While these are not meant to be scientific evaluations, there…

How in the world could an innocent man like Jesus end up being convicted, tortured and nailed to a tree?  One thing is for certain—rational thinking was not present or practiced among His enemies in those dark hours.  In the early morning hours of that Friday, the leaders of this inquisition “led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium…But they themselves did not…

To read the account of the life of Jesus is to see how often He was either frustrated or amazed at the apostles’ lack of understanding about what He was saying. He was with them almost daily for over three years, but their words even at the ascension show just how little they had comprehended. Those apostles struggled to understand even the…

As we go through life, there are basic needs. Food, shelter and clothing are all basic needs. Other needs include social, emotional needs like a sense of belonging, nurturing environment and basic instruction. In the spiritual context, we need God, His word and Jesus. We need Jesus because He is our mediator who reconciles us to God. “For there is one God,…

When you think about the POWER of God, when you think about the GRACE of God, and when you think about the LOVE of God, what do those three things have in common?  Well, we might be able to find a number of things that they have in common, but I want to focus your attention on a word that Paul uses…

As one reads the book of Psalms, he easily discovers that in this book are scores of prayers of David. There is so much to be learned about praying from this godly man. In reality we have far more of the prayers of David than we do of the prayers of Jesus. Jesus prayed. Jesus prayed all night. Jesus prayed so differently…