There are verses in the Bible which seem so strange to us because we do not understand the culture when they were written. For example, Peter going “up on the housetop to pray” (Acts 10:9) seems so strange until we learn that the roofs of the houses were flat and a vital part of the lives of people in the first century.…

God’s people had just returned from Babylonian captivity. They had no temple, no priesthood, no altar, and the city of Jerusalem was in ruins. This was far different from the glorious days of the past, and it would have been so easy to be discouraged. The holy city once had a population of hundreds of thousands, but the number of those who…

Have you ever considered what difference it makes to the driver who ignores the signs at the four-way stop? The fact the signs are there makes no difference in his life. The same is true of the laws about speed limits, wearing seat belts, and dimming headlights to oncoming traffic. The laws have no impact on that person who chooses to ignore…

Our religious world has lost sight of the power of the story of the coming of the Messiah, His death, His resurrection and the establishment of His kingdom to bring salvation to the world. This was the message that began at Pentecost and spread around the world. In this day, far too many give their “testimony” about their past life and how…

Who has not had that period in their life where the darkest clouds surrounded them, and the raging storms of life threatened them? Who has not been filled with anxiety and felt like Luke, who described that storm he shared with Paul on the apostle’s voyage to Rome? He said, “Now when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no…

The book of Psalms gives us such great insight into the deep emotions felt by David. It allows us to see how his soul felt when he walked through the valley of the shadow of death. It helps us to vividly see what he thought about as he stared into the firmament and the heavens and saw God’s glory. Have you ever…

He was a young missionary just beginning the work where he would serve the Lord for the next forty years. He had grown up in a small rural town and the “world” was the changing all around him. There was simply no way he could envision what lay ahead for him. Now he sat in an amazing aircraft capable of navigating over…

Sometimes we mistakenly think of the magnitude of sins in a wrong way. We talk of “little” sins as being those which really do not “count” because they seem so innocent when compared to major blunders which only the most ungodly do. The Catholic Church even has the same view of sins which are characterized as venial and mortal sins. When one…