I recently had a bad week as a do-gooder. I was driving to yet another event to “do-good” and at the stoplight I began to have an attitude problem (more like an attitude meltdown). I wanted to throw in the towel. It was Friday and I’d spent the entire week accomplishing things on everyone’s to-do list […]
You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings– what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them” (2 Timothy 3:10-11). I know a little bit about a lot. […]
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity… Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, […]
Contentment. There are few things in the Christian walk that make me squirm as much as contentment. I don’t like to think of myself as a malcontent, but too often, I am. I have unmet desires, unfulfilled hopes, unattained dreams—my days are filled with these things. But that’s not what makes me a malcontent. What […]
Everyone likes an atta-boy or atta-girl from time to time. Being recognized for doing a good job. Affirmed in something that we’ve worked hard to accomplish. A cheer along the marathon of life saying, “Keep it up! You’re doing great!” With the finish line ahead, sometimes the final lap can feel like such a struggle […]
One of the sure signs of genuine Christian faith is how we react to suffering. When the going gets tough, the Christian keeps going. An irony of the Christian faith is: Historically, its growth was most marked in the very times in which it was under the greatest persecution. Nothing reveals our trust more than […]
If we’re walking on the Way of Holiness, what would be in our pack of provisions? Today’s passage (Colossians 4:2-6) outlines a few possibilities: A book of prayers—so you can be devoted to prayer as a way of life. Reading glasses—so you can read your circumstances and look for Jesus in them. Thank you notes—so […]
Have you ever had someone dictate a list of things to you? Perhaps a honey-do list? A grocery list? Maybe things you needed from the hardware store? Just when you think they’re through and you have a nice long list, they say, “Oh, and one more thing.” Colossians 3:1-17 reads kind of like that. The […]
Do you see yourself as a citizen of a kingdom? That’s what the Bible says you are. You either belong to the kingdom of this earth or you are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. Unlike the United States where you can be a citizen of two countries at the same time and have […]
Long after the teacher had concluded her example of coffee beans in a glass of water, I continued to watch the visual as it sat on the sidelines through the rest of her talk. No one probably noticed it but me. Even now, I’m not exactly sure I remember what the visual was demonstrating—maybe something […]
