Imagine that someone you care about calls you after a painful disagreement. They explain what happened, what was said, and why they were hurt. Their account seems reasonable, and by the end of the conversation, you feel certain that you understand the situation. Later, you speak with the other person, and the story sounds entirely different. The facts are the …
Maturing in Christ
Every so often, I have to stop and ask myself a hard question: Am I really maturing in Christ? It is easy to assume that I am. I can point to how long I have believed, how much Scripture I know, or how many responsibilities I carry. But maturity is usually revealed in moments that are far less impressive: when …
The Love Behind the Ten Commandments
Perhaps no portion of the Bible is more widely recognized than the Ten Commandments. People throughout the world are familiar with them, yet they are often misunderstood. Many see them primarily as stern demands that must be obeyed to avoid God’s judgment. Others regard them as merely “Old Testament law,” applicable only to the people of Israel before the Messiah …
Pride: Why God Opposes the Proud
Few statements in Scripture are more sobering than the words, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). Pride was the first sin committed against God, which makes it especially important to recognize for what it is: a direct challenge to His authority. Most Christians understand that pride is wrong, but James says far more than …
What Are You Seeing?
As I reflect on my own spiritual journey, one truth has become increasingly clear over the years. My relationship with God and my Lord Jesus Christ is revealed far more by how I live and treat others than by what I claim to believe. Looking back, I can trace the patient work of God’s Word transforming my life through years …
Shaped by the Living God
Shaped by the Living God, explores God’s desire to restore humanity to its original purpose as His image and representative on the earth. Drawing from Genesis, Ephesians, Romans, Colossians, and the Psalms, Rich Robson contrasts God’s design for mankind with humanity’s tendency to reject God’s wisdom and create its own standards of truth. He emphasizes that the root problem of …
Has Christ Been Formed In Me?
In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he wrote with deep concern over how these followers of Christ were departing from the gospel of the grace of Christ and returning to legalism—a works-based approach to righteousness before God. Righteous works are good. The question is whether those works flow from a transformed, spirit-led relationship with Jesus Christ or from merely following …
Faith Under Fire
Marc Dickie shares a teaching focused on faithfulness, using the example of King Hezekiah of Judah during a dire military threat from Assyria. Drawing from Isaiah 36–37, Marc described how Hezekiah and his officials responded to the taunts of the Assyrian commander, Rabshakeh, by turning to prayer and consulting the prophet Isaiah. The study concluded with the narrative of divine …
What Are You Thinking?
A few days ago, I received an unexpected phone call from someone I had not spoken with in more than three years. At one time, we served together in ministry. Circumstances eventually led us down very different paths, and the relationship ended with hurt, disappointment, and unresolved tension. Since then, there had been no communication between us. When my phone …
A Prize Worth Pursuing: Knowing Jesus
Last night at our Wednesday prayer meeting and Bible study, one of the ladies spoke up after we had just read these words of Jesus: “For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.” (Mark 9:41) This sweet, elderly lady (who had just …