Extending forgiveness to someone is hard! It is especially hard when we have been hurt deeply and even repeatedly. Sometimes a person will ask for our forgiveness, and we will be hesitant or resist completely. Sometimes we will not accept a person’s apology because “they didn’t say it just right.” There are many layers to the matter of forgiveness, but consider an example. Stephen was “a…

Just because you “have a right” as a citizen of this country does not necessarily mean that you have approval from God for such. Regardless of when one has a right to have an abortion in this country does not change God’s view of the sanctity of life and the sinfulness of murder. Just because you have a right to freedom of speech does…

If you believe in the sovereignty of God, you know that “the Most High rules in the kingdom of men” (Dan. 4:17, 25, 32; 5:21). If you believe in the sovereignty of God, you know that God not only “raises up kings,” but He also “removes kings” (Dan. 2:21). If you believe in the sovereignty of God, you know how often nations fell throughout…

It’s interesting how current events can be a reminder of a similar event in the Bible. While Paul was in Ephesus in Acts 19, “there arose a great commotion about the Way” (19:23), and unbelievers targeted Paul for his preaching and miracles (19:27). Read the reactions of the people carefully: “They were full of wrath and cried out…So the whole city was filled with…

John Henry Holmes—a 19th-century electrical engineer and inventor from Newcastle, England—is credited with inventing the light switch in 1884. Never before could an individual so quickly turn something on or off. Or is that true? The apostle Peter utilized a type of switch in Galatians 2. When he visited the Gentile city of Antioch, “he would eat with the Gentiles” (Gal. 2:11-12), for his fellow…

Jesus taught that we are to “love the Lord” with “all” of our heart, soul, strength and mind (Luke 10:27). What does that look like? Paul said that, to those who have “put on the new man,” Christ is “all and in all” (Col. 3:10-11). What does that look like? There are many ways to answer that question, but Chris Tomlin summarized…

So many folks who are not yet Christians have held off on making that final decision to be baptized into Christ and to give their life to the Lord UNTIL “I get things in my life straightened out.” Likewise, many Christians have stumbled over the years and then hold off coming back to the Lord UNTIL “I get my life put together again.”…

Do you have a friend who is always there for you no matter what? I mean “always”! They never have a family emergency or get sick or have something unexpected come up. You probably have a friend who is “almost always” there for you, but no one could say “always.” Do you have a friend who will listen to you all times of day or…