An unusual commendation?

We all like to be complimented. We identify with the boy who said to his father, “Dad, let’s play darts. I’ll throw. And you say, ‘great shot!’” We want people to say we’ve done a job well, that we look good for our age, that it looks like we’ve lost a few pounds, that our […]

When it’s wise to be inhospitable

I grew up in a home where we often had others into our home for the purpose of fellowship and hospitality. In serving as a pastor for more than 20 years now, my wife and I have always sought opportunities to spend time with people inside and outside our church body to cultivate relationships and […]

Do you love God? How do you know?

Augustine observed, “There can only be two basic loves, the love of God unto the forgetfulness of self; or the love of self unto the forgetfulness and denial of God.” From that it might then be asked, “whom do you love supremely? God or yourself?” Now we all know what the answer should be — […]

Because God is love…

More than 20 times singers rejected the song before Johnny Lee selected “Lookin’ for Love in All the Wrong Places” to sing in the movie, “Urban Cowboy.” It was never intended to be recorded as part of an album, but with the success of the movie, it was released as a single and sold more […]

How great a love

Our girls were still very young when one night I heard one of them still awake and talking in their room some time after we put them in bed, so I went to check on them. Elizabeth (our four-year-old) was already sound asleep, but Emily (our almost-two-year-old) was wide awake, lying on her back and […]

He really forgives!

I was about eight years old. It was Saturday morning. My little brother was still in bed. Cartoons were on TV. All was right with the world. Except that while my eyes were looking at the television, they weren’t seeing the cartoons. My mind was preoccupied with a problem. What if I died? Would I […]

This isn’t hard to understand

Some books of the Bible are difficult to understand. In some Epistles, the flow of thought is somewhat obscured by complex structure. In some historical narratives, there are accounts of strange events that leave us wondering how to interpret and apply them (see Judges 19, for one example). In many of the prophets there are […]

Valentine’s Day: God’s love for His own

What is God’s unique love for His redeemed people? He made us His children and given us One who is greater than the one in the world Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (1 Jn 4:4) […]