The city of Athens burdened Paul the apostle. He wandered through its streets and bumped into idol after idol. Those who lived there spent (wasted?) their moments telling of and hearing about the next new thing. The Athenians did this because every idol grows stale. There’s a limited shelf life...

The Corinthian church was a church of activity, an assembly blessed with gifted people. However, as gifted as it was, this congregation still had its problems, as we can see in the pages of the letters Paul wrote to these Christians. In the words about this collection of believers at...

How many people are trained by fear to produce moral behavior instead of growing in grace? Fear is a powerful motivator. The most powerful, but not the most productive. “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be...

Jesus traveled through Samaria. He and His disciples were on the run because they had become marked men. Their movement had become bigger than that of John the Baptist. John the Baptist conducted his ministry out of the way, down at the Jordan River. And, the Baptist’s eccentric ways, his...

“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility–I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or...

I can remember when I first met a group of people who really seemed to enjoy church. The services were full of singing and shouting. There were tears and even laughter. It was so different for me. Occasionally, I went forward to pray among them, but I wasn’t really there....

The early chapters of 1 Samuel could be titled this: “The Tale of Two Fathers.” There is Elkanah and his leadership, and then there is Eli, the priest and leader of the Tabernacle — Israel’s worship center that was then based in Shiloh. Elkanah represents one of those hidden heroes...

Pay attention as you read the parables of Jesus and you may discern a pattern. In the majority of these lessons, He defines an authority figure engaged with two groups of people. One group is made up of those serving and working for the one in charge. The members of...

Gideon got a visitation, a compliment, and a mission. And, he really wasn’t ready for any of these things. Still, God transformed him into one of the true faith heroes of the Bible. His story falls in the midst of the book of Judges, a series of stories that relate...

Worship is not like going to an Italian Restaurant one week and to a French Restaurant the next to experience the different flavors of each.