Pray and Do Not Give Up Jesus teaches us to keep praying and to not stop until we get an answer Jesus gives us an object lesson (a parable) of a widow who keeps appearing before a judge to seek justice. A bad adjudicator, he cares nothing of her, of public opinion, or of God, […]

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Where Should We Go For Jesus? Where Is Our Mission Field? Sometimes we may need to go far away for Jesus and other times we may need to go home Before Jesus returns to heaven, he tells his followers to go throughout the world and let others know about him (Matthew 28:19). Does that mean […]

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The Bible Personifies Wisdom What the Bible Teaches About Wisdom May Shock Us The book of Proverbs talks a lot about wisdom. The word pops up in fifty-five versus in this thirty-one-chapter book. That’s a lot of wisdom. This may be the reason why many think of Proverbs as a book of wisdom. As Solomon […]

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Know the Bible: Is Studying and Memorizing the Bible Important? When Satan Tempts Jesus, Jesus Responds by Quoting Scripture Satan was unsuccessful in preventing Jesus’s birth and he was unsuccessful in causing Jesus to die prematurely before he could start his mission. For the enemy’s next ploy to thwart God’s plan to reconcile us to […]

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What Can We Do to Help Others? Discover Ten Reasons Why People Speak Well of Job Job had everything and he lost it all. He can’t figure out what happened or why God seems so distant. Though enduring hard times, he asserts he has done nothing wrong. To reinforce this claim of right behavior, he […]

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Do You Hear From God? Under Holy Spirit inspiration Simeon and Anna affirm Jesus when he is a baby Shortly after Jesus is born his parents take him to the temple in Jerusalem to present him to God and go through the purification rites as prescribed by Moses. As they do so, they receive two […]

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Why Do We Love God? When Do We Love God? We Must Love God Regardless of Our Circumstances It’s easy to love God when things go well. When our lives are great and we receive his blessings, we can thank him, praise him, and appreciate his goodness. It’s easy to love him when life is […]

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When is the Best Time to do Good? Helping others is one of many ways to worship God I like the stories about Jesus helping people in need, such as by feeding them and especially by healing them. Even more I like it when Jesus confronts the religious practices of the day. We have so […]

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Jesus Rose from the Dead and So Did Many Others In Acts chapter 26, the prisoner Paul makes his defense before King Agrippa. Basically Paul recaps key moments of his life and turns his testimony into a sermon. This must make King Agrippa squirm, because he pushes back, asking if Paul expects him to become […]

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Is Jesus Waiting for You? The Son of Man Stands to Welcome Stephen Into Heaven In the seventh chapter in the book of Acts, Stephen delivers a powerful speech to the Jewish religious leaders, called the Sanhedrin. His sermon smartly recaps the story arc of the Old Testament, starting with father Abraham and spilling over […]

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Are You a Good Samaritan? Helping Our Neighbors Should Be More Important Than Following Religious Rules A man comes up to Jesus. The guy’s an expert in Jewish law. Today we might call him a theologian. He asks Jesus a question, “What should I do to earn eternal life?” The answer is simple. There are […]

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The Sabbath Day Sunday should not be a day of restriction but a day of freedom and celebration In the book of Exodus, God and Moses have a face-to-face meeting. That is significant. How cool would it be to have a direct conversation with the Almighty? Certainly, we’d remember what he told us and be […]

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What If God Sent a Pillar of Fire to Guide You? For Forty Years the Israelites Had a Pillar of Cloud and a Pillar of Fire to Show Them Where to Go After spending four-hundred years in Egypt, the repressed children of God finally get a chance to leave. This comes under the leadership of […]

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How Often Do We Blame God When Bad Things Happen? Just Because God Can Do Something Doesn’t Mean That He Does Most people know the story about Joseph and his multicolored coat. Of how his brothers resent his behavior and how their father indulges his favorite son. To get rid of him, the brothers effectively […]

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What If God Told You to Kill Your Son, Just as He Did with Abraham? The Bible Is Chocked Full of Perplexing Stories That Are Hard to Understand One puzzling story in the Bible is when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. What loving father would kill his son? It might be […]

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In the Beginning, God Created… Were we created or did we evolve? How did it all begin? That is, where did we come from? Let’s go back to the beginning. I don’t intend to end the debate over the beginning of life and our reality. This won’t change anyone’s mind. But I do want to […]

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Did Queen Esther Live Happily Ever After? Applying the Fairytale Story of Cinderella to Esther Disrespects Her Situation I’ve always liked the story of Queen Esther. She’s an ordinary girl who wins a national beauty pageant and becomes queen. If this story seems familiar, consider the fairytale story of Cinderella. The two have much in […]

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When it Comes to God, Should We “Fake it Till We Make It?” Though David Tells God That He Is “My Refuge,” I Doubt David Feels It Psalm 142 is a prayer of lament. David’s hiding in a cave, likely fearing for his life. He feels alone with no one walking alongside him or having […]

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When Is the Right Time to Close a Church? Churches Close for Tangible Problems, But Maybe Some Should Close for Spiritual Reasons In the book of Malachi, God laments about his people. Specifically he’s down on the priests because they show contempt for him. Their worship is so off-track that God wishes one of the […]

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Do We Have a Positive Influence on Others or a Negative One? The Evil Queen, Her Good-Bad Grandson, and the Influential Priest In today’s passage we read about Queen Athaliah, her grandson Joash, and the priest Jehoiada. Here’s their story. The Evil Queen Athaliah Athaliah’s son Ahaziah is King. As with most mothers, she influences […]

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