It’s a tough job being a parent! The hours: 168 hours a week (and that’s only because there aren’t 169 hours or more available in a week). The pay: below minimum wage, way below minimum wage; in fact, you have pay to be a parent (instead of getting paid). Hazards: well,  there are too many to list (and we don’t want to…

Some parents’ approach to parenting is to wait (even longingly wait) for their children to make a mistake, so that they can pounce on them, tell them what they did wrong and seek to correct it. Some couples’ approach to marriage is to wait (even longingly wait) for their spouse to make a mistake, so that the mistake-free spouse can pounce on…

In a day of disposable marriages and empty vows, how are there couples who have been married for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years? Our godless society and liberal media might be able to come up with some snarky answer to that question, but they would never unearth the truth (if they tried) that holds these marriages together amidst a dearth of…

The apostle John enjoyed a special relationship with Jesus. Not only was he one of the twelve apostles, John was inspired to refer to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 21:7, 20). Then, in the short epistle of First John, the apostle emphasized a Christian’s special relationship with the Lord–“truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son…

The last verse of Psalm 96 begins with the word “for.” That is not unusual, for other psalms follow that same pattern and the word is found about 9,000 times in the entire Bible. The word “for” often introduces a cause, the effects of which have already been enumerated. (Example: “For” in Galatians 3:27 is the cause [baptized] of the effect in…

There is an almost-humorous event that happened in the city of Ephesus, while Paul was ministering there (Acts 19:11-15). He had been so successful in proclaiming the name of the Lord Jesus, performing miracles in the name of the Lord and casting out demons in the name of the Lord that some imposters tried to duplicate his power over evil spirits by…

Forgiveness. It is such a hard thing to do! It is such an emotionally-charged topic that it is hard to discuss and consider with any level of impartiality! We are quick to expect others to forgive, but we are slow in offering forgiveness ourselves! Jesus taught significant and numerous lessons about forgiveness, but consider just this one verse for a moment in…

Picture what the sky looks like right before a bad storm. Jesus talked of men being able to discern the weather by looking to the sky: “It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering” (Matt. 16:3). The word “lowering” is from a Greek word that means “a dark or gloomy appearance.” You know what that looks like,…