All He Wants Is Your Faith
God doesn’t want your home, car, furniture, savings or any of your possessions. All he wants is your faith, your strong belief in his Word. That may be the one thing that other, more spiritual-appearing people may lack. You may look at another person as being more spiritual than you, but that person may actually…
The Lord’s Chastening Love
Because God loves you, he will work to cleanse you. You may feel God’s arrows in your soul because of your sins, but you can call upon his chastening love. You will not feel his wrath as the heathen do. The Lord’s rod of discipline will be applied by a loving hand. Perhaps your suffering…
Victory Over Your Besetting Sin
When King David was right with the Lord and in good fellowship, none of his enemies could stand before him. When David sinned and became estranged from the Lord, his enemies grew bold and triumphed over him. After one of his greatest victories, David’s sin of adultery immediately followed. This great man of God, basking…
The Pearl of Great Price
The gospels give us a great insight into Christ’s parables: “All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable he did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: ‘I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret…
Letting God Search Our Hearts
Do you know it is possible to walk before the Lord with a perfect heart? To come to grips with the idea of perfection, we first must understand that perfection does not mean a sinless, flawless existence. No, perfection in the Lord’s eyes means something entirely different. It means completeness, maturity. If you are hungering…
Leaving the World a Better Place
Solomon, one of the wisest men in the world, wrote, “This, too, is a very serious problem. People leave this world no better off than when they came. All their hard work is for nothing—like working for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 5:16, NLT). You can read that verse two different ways. Somebody comes into the world,…
Glorifying the Name of God
“’Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour”? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’” (John 12:27-28, ESV). At a pastors conference in one…
The Joy and Pain of God
Many commentators call Jeremiah the weeping prophet, and that’s certainly true of him, but this man also brought us the most joyous promise in the Old Testament. Through him, God gave his people this incredible assurance, “I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but…
The Power of God’s Glory
What changes the world is beholding the glory of God. In scripture, there are a few people who had really intimate revelations of God’s glory. I know that sounds mystical, but it’s not really. Sometimes, beholding God’s glory can be so natural. The Bible shows us this with both people who are actively seeking God…
Are You a Merciful Person?
Are you a merciful person? Most of us would answer, “I think I am merciful. I feel the pain of my hurting brothers and sisters in Christ, and I try to help them. I do my best to assist my neighbors in need. When people hurt me, I forgive them and don’t hold a grudge.”…