How many people stop because so few say "Go!"? In his fine little book Fully Human, Fully Alive, author John Powell relates an experience which happened to a friend while he was vacationing in the Bahamas. The friend was sightseeing when he noticed a crowd gathered toward the end of a pier.
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A winning church is characterized by worship, instruction, and nourishment. That is the kind of church God uses to pour His power into our lives. And a final ingredient of a church that generates God’s power is sharing the gospel.
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What is the purpose of spiritual gifts? The New Testament shows they are given to strengthen the church and are a picture of divine unity in the body of Christ. In light of this, it should grieve us when they become a point of division in our fellowships. Yet there are few areas of biblical doctrine that are more prone to produce mistrust and judgment among us than this one.
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It’s a real challenge to reach today’s culture. There was once a time when you could assume most people had a general idea of the Bible (if you referenced Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, Noah and his ark, or even Jesus Christ, they would have a sense of what or who you were referring to). Not anymore.
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I'm concerned about the impact of materialism on families today. During the Great Depression, it was easy enough for parents to tell their kids that they couldn't afford to buy everything they wanted. But in these times, children see that you can purchase their hearts' desires—if not with cash, then with your magic credit card.
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The greatest temptation you’ll have this year is to pursue some good purpose—some good thing you believe God wants you to have (and you may be right)—in your own way. You might say, “I feel like God wants me to be prosperous and bless me with money, but it’s not happening fast enough, so I’ll just hedge a little bit here and there, or overwork myself to make it happen.” Or, “I ...
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Do hurting people need help? Absolutely and one of the promises God makes to us is that throughout life there will be pain; it’s just as inevitable as the need for air to breathe. There’s no doubt that we are more helpless than we often realize and more in need of burden bearers in our life than we’d like to admit.
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Perhaps you're not where you want to be. You're reading this in a hospital bed, or in a prison or halfway house, or in a distant city far from family. Maybe you've had to move out of the home you loved or away from the town where you grew up. You might be reading this in a dormitory room, feeling lonelier than you've ever felt ion your life.
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Contentment is not something we're born with; it's something we learn. We must train ourselves to be satisfied, and we do this by simply counting our blessings. When we count our blessings, we remember that all we have is ours by grace.
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Beyond a doubt, one of the frustrating parts of our Christian walk is knowing when and where God is leading us. But the children of Israel had no such problem as they traveled through the wilderness. The cloud was a visible sign and symbol of God’s presence with His people.
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