If you don't exercise, your muscles atrophy and become weak.  It is the same in the Christian life.  We often think about exericising our faith, but we also need to exericise our hope in Christ.  Fyodor Dostoevsky once said, "Tot...

Faith is the essential foundation of Christian life, serving as both a gracious gift from God and our personal responsibility. Just as the roots of an oak tree receive nourishment, our faith receives salvation, providing us with a shield in spi...

What is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen in this world?  What is the greatest love you have ever experienced in relationships?  What revealed truth has given the greatest light to a problem in your life, enabled resolution ...

Every wise investor knows to take into consideration the long view of things.  And every wise person knows to keep eternity in view, for eternity gives light to the one thing that matters most in our brief life:  love--love for God an...

Love is not a sprinter but a marathon runner.  The world record in the dead lift is currently over 1,104 pounds!  That is strong!  But love is stronger--as the Song of Songs says, even stronger than death.  God is love. ...

One of the important aspects of a faith that powerfully loves others is hope.  Spiritual vision of God's glorious future promised to His people is what ensures we treat others in a way that refuses to let their sins and failures have the l...

Scripture says "love believes all things." Does this mean Christians are to be naive in our relationships? If we are to love others, does this mean we Christians are expected by God not to face reality in our relationships?  By faith, love...

By the grace of Jesus, we are empowered to do what is right even when it is difficult.

God makes Himself known—but not just through the beauty of nature. While creation points to His power and majesty, it’s through special revelation—His Word—that we come to know His grace, His righteousness, and His desire for relationship with ...

God is love, and love is like a good roof that covers, protects, endures, and never leaks.

God is love, but God is also light and truth and just.  He is a God who is merciful and forgiving, but who will by no means clear the guilty.  Jesus is not only the Savior of sinners but the Judge of all men.  This is why the tru...

In personal relationships, resentment is an accountant who keeps a record of wrongs, but love is a firefighter that quenches relational fires big and small.  We see this most beautifully and supremely in Jesus Christ and His death on the C...

What happens in your heart when someone wrongs you? In this profound exploration of 1 Corinthians 13:5, we discover the supernatural quality of love that remains unshaken even when deeply wounded. "Love is not irritable or easily provoked" chal...

Jesus concludes The Lord's Prayer in Matthew with "For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever.  Amen."  This closing praise to God our Father who is King, who is in control, and who gets the glory.  Spoiler ale...

A friend of ours lives in the mountains of Tennessee.  One morning she walked out early into the dark onto her porch, only to realize there was a bear at the edge of her porch.  She quickly proceeded back inside.  But do you real...

Have you ever considered that your soul can live and act without your body but your body cannot live and act without your soul?  In this fifth petition of The Lord's Prayer Jesus teaches us that the vital importance of caring, not just for...

Jesus teaches us to pray for daily bread.  Not weekly, monthly, or yearly, but daily.  Daily bread.  Not filet mignon, sea bass, or chicken fettuccine alfredo, but bread.  If we are experiencing discontent, grumbling, or fil...

What gives life ultimate meaning and purpose?  What will make the way you live your life today matter in 500 years, or 500,000 years, or 500 million years?  How do we face personal tragedy and suffering and death?  There is only ...

Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem on Sunday, at the beginning of what we call Passion Week.  Why is Jesus' riding of a donkey into Jerusalem so important, for it is recorded in all four Gospels?  Jesus was "crossing the Rubicon" for ...

What is your favorite food?  Jesus told us what His favorite was in John 4:34, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work" (ESV).  This third petition of The Lord's Prayer reminds us we need to align ours...

We cannot understand what is going on inside of us or in the world around us unless we understand that we live in a world where there is a clash of kingdoms--the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of d...

What is the purpose of a coffee maker?  It certainly isn't designed to make ham sandwiches.  It's purpose is to brew coffee.  That's why it was created.  What is the purpose of an adopted child of God our Father?  Jesus...

How we spend our money tells us where our heart is--what we value, desire, and love. It tells us what we think is worth a sacrifice. In a similar way, how we pray tells us what we think of God, ourselves, Christ's church, our neighbor, and the ...

The Lord's Prayer does not simply show us how to pray.  It is a blueprint for living and giving to the glory of God.  See you Sunday as we begin to explore together this great prayer Jesus taught us.