Growing up and memorizing the Ten Commandments, the second commandment seemed so obvious that it’s not even necessary to teach it today. Right? “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image” (Ex. 20:4). That’s so “3,500 years ago”! Fast forward about 700 years from Exodus 20 and God’s people had hung on to “the bronze serpent” Moses made in Numbers 20 to save the people…

You wake up in the morning and you have no idea what may happen that day. You never know what awaits you when you arrive at work. You never know what news might be on the other end of a phone call. You never know what someone may take out on you unexpectedly. You never know what your car may do, what a family member may…

There is an interesting expression used by Paul in his first letter to the brethren in Thessalonica. Not many months after the brethren there had protected Paul and helped him to safely leave the city by night (Acts 17:5-10), Paul wrote a letter to them to impart some heavenly truths and encouragement. He noted that he had “been taken away from you for a…

When gas prices were over four dollars per gallon a few years back, I remember hearing talk about that being so expensive that some folks could not afford to go to church. Take a minute and figure out how much it costs you to drive to church. If you live 20 miles from the building (which is more than most) and you get 15…

As human beings, we are limited to (and therefore, often focused upon) physical descriptions, physical measurements, physical time. However, one thing that we need to remember about our God is that He is not. He is not limited to physical anything, whether that be time or dimensions. What does that have to do with you today? The Hebrew spies and the shepherd David saw giants,…

When the twelve Hebrew spies went into Canaan, they all saw the same things but not in the same way. Joshua and Caleb announced, “We are well able to overcome” (Num. 13:30). But the other ten spies despondently replied, “We are not able” (13:31). All of them had seen the giants in the land, but those weak in faith said, “We were like grasshoppers in…

The apostle Paul had been through so much during his service to the Lord! When he penned his second letter to Timothy (and the final letter we have from his hand), he referenced some kind of legal trial to which he had been subjected, and he stated, “No one stood with me, but all forsook me” (2 Tim. 4:16). How sad! When he looked around,…

Did you ever have a teacher or parent force you to say, “I’m sorry,” to some other kid? I’m not claiming that such an effort should never be made by an adult, but there is something usually lacking in that scenario – true sorrow. Saying the words is not the same as meaning the words. Paul had written a sternly-worded letter to the church…