A teenage girl made some poor decisions and engaged in some immoral and illegal activities.  She was young and “still had her entire life ahead of her” (as many were prone to say).  The prosecutor gave her a choice: take a deal and serve two years probation or go to court and face seven-to-ten years in prison.  She had a difficult time…

Many a sermon has been preached in which the question was asked, “Are you among the few or among the many?” (based upon Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:13-14).  “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and…

Each day is filled with unexpected events — an emergency trip out of town, the death of a loved one, a hard drive crashing, an ink pen leaking in a shirt pocket, the Bengals thrashing the Bears, a flat tire on the way to work, an extra project assigned to you, etc., etc.  Each day when we wake, there are those activities…

A telephone surveyor called the office this week and one of his questions was, “Are you single, married or cohabiting?”  Beyond the fact that such a question to a preacher is amusing (or maybe it’s not these days) is the reality that our society is in full acceptance of “cohabiting” as a conventional living arrangement (whether temporary or permanent).  Much is implied…

Jesus sat down next to a well in Samaria one day around noon, and a woman came to draw water.  Much to her surprise, Jesus began to speak to the woman.  “How isit that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (John 4:9).  I’m not sure if her emphasis was on the word “Samaritan,” on the word…

I heard of a company that, in order to cut costs, started cutting back on their products, reducing sizes and volumes.  (You’ve probably seen evidence of other companies doing that-we’re paying more but getting less in some cases.)  The problem was that one of this company’s products was a twelve inch ruler.  Since they had made an across-the-board decision that every product…

Sometimes when we try to describe God, the right words are hard to find and put together to truly represent our hearts.  I like the way David took one word (a simple but profound word) in Psalm 145:3 and used it three times to describe God:  “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable.” Why don’t…

There are those who are inside Christ, through their obedience to the gospel, having been “baptized into Christ” (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27).  As Christians (those who are inside Christ), we have a responsibility to monitor how we behave and the influence we have upon those who are also inside Christ.  But, the extent of our influence stretches beyond, into the realm of…