This past Sunday at church, when the children were called forward for their special time, everyone in the congregation watched with joy as the little ones tripped down the aisles in their dresses and bows, sweaters and ties, their little feet moving excitedly to reach the front of the sanctuary.
One Saturday night a few weeks before Christmas, Kristina and Rob attended a holiday party at another married couple’s house. Kristina and Rob had only lived in the area for six months, and they were newlyweds.
Feeling a little insecure at the party, Kristina started to make small talk with a few women in the living room while Rob gravitated toward the other husbands, who were watching a basketball game on TV.
“Those men are always watching sports,” said Sara, the hostess of the party.
Another woman spoke up. “Yeah, they’re always yelling like animals and ignoring us.”
Some of the women gathered in the living room rolled their eyes in agreement. Read the rest of this entry »
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
-Philippians 2:5
It is impossible to live pure lives until we have pure hearts. Many people today are trying to put the cart before the horse. They are teaching purity of motives, desires, and actions to old, deceitful hearts! No wonder we have ended up such moral failures, in spite of our vaunted knowledge and psychological approaches.
Pure motives, desires, and actions stem from pure hearts. Pure hearts will be Christlike. It is God’s desire that we be conformed to the image of His Son. If Christ lives within us and our bodies become the abode of the Holy Spirit, is it any wonder that we should be like Him?
While the United States collectively experienced the terrorist attacks of last September 11, some of us quietly face our own terrors, such as I did several months ago when a specialist diagnosed my symptoms as Parkinson’s disease. (Later the diagnosis was proved wrong.) She assured me that medication would relieve my symptoms for five years, but after that I could expect my organs to break down gradually and finally fail.
Micah, a representative from God’s heavenly throne to Earth, has a message for people facing terrors. Unfortunately, most Christians have never heard Micah’s 19 sermons—sermons that could give us insight into our fears and help to relieve them.
Micah preached during and for times of terror. According to the book’s superscription,(1) Micah delivered his sermons while the feared Assyrians, noted for spreading terror, gradually engulfed the entire Middle East until only Mount Zion survived. Read the rest of this entry »
The Minor Prophets are 12 relatively short, often neglected books at the end of the Old Testament in the English Bible. These books span 300 years, from the eighth century B.C. to the fifth century B.C. In these books God warns sinners of impending judgment, but He also provides a vision of a glorious era that follows the dark days of divine discipline.
Hosea and his eighth-century contemporaries, Amos and Micah, warned Israel and Judah of invasion and exile but also foresaw a messianic kingdom where God’s ideal for His people would be realized.(1) Read the rest of this entry »
When Jesus came near, he spoke to them. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
So wherever you go, make disciples of all nations: Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Teach them to do everything I have commanded you. “And remember that I am always with you until the end of time.” Matthew 28: 18-20
During my father’s career as a radio and television newsman, he reported regularly on major developments and disasters. He gave live reports at the scenes of big news events, and he witnessed many exciting—sometimes terrifying—things up close.
The historical event he considered to be the greatest hasn’t happened yet: the Second Coming of Christ. The Apostles Paul and Peter, among others, remind us that the great culminating event of history will be what the Bible calls a “day of the Lord.”(1) Read the rest of this entry »
