Recommendation:  Please read the following verses slowly and gauge your response to each. “Love is patient” (1 Cor. 13:4).  “The fruit of the Spirit is…patience” (Gal. 5:22).  “Walk in a worthy manner…with patience” (Eph. 4:1-2).  We “pray for you” that you may be “strengthened…for all patience and longsuffering with joy” (Col. 1:9-11).  “As the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on…patience”…

One of the hardest things to do is learn to control the tongue (as James 3 attests).  It has been said, “We take 2 years to learn to talk and 60 years to learn when to shut up.”  Oh, our tongues – “what a world of iniquity” (Jas. 3:6).  What we don’t realize, sometimes, is that controlling our words and what we…

There are a lot of great things that you can do on behalf of your brothers and sisters in Christ.  You can call them to check on them, write them a card to encourage them, hug them whenever you see them, invite them into your home for fellowship, perform some random act of kindness, comfort them in times of grief or trouble,…

There is a compound Greek word that combines the word for “mind” and the word for “divided” to create a word that means “divided mind.”  This mind is drawn in different directions and is distracted by the cares and concerns abundant in life.  We find Jesus using this word at the end of Luke 10, when He came to the house of…

How well are we doing in training our young women?  Parents have the primary responsibility in raising their young girls/women “in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).  As additional support in this soul-critical endeavor, the Lord gave His church.  In numerous ways, the church is able to benefit parents in the building of faith in the hearts of our…

If you boiled every excuse down to its very basic component, what would you find?  It should not be surprising that Jesus answered this question for us.  In Luke 14, our Lord told the Parable of the Great Supper.  See if you can identify the common element found in every excuse. “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, …‘Come,…

Turn again and read the inspired wisdom of Solomon.  This time, look at what he said about money.  Scripture tells us that “King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches” (1 Kings 10:23).  So, perhaps, he might know a thing or two about money. –   “He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver” (Ecc. 5:10).  The key…

The first half of Ecclesiastes 2 is a soul-searching, eye-opening read. Consider Solomon’s view: “I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure’; but surely, this also was vanity…I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine…till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven…