Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” (Rev 2:4). The cold and dark time of year has come upon us. However, it won’t be that long until spring. It hardly looks like it at the moment but spring is surely on the way! In just a few months we’ll be working outside in our yards again. We’ll find peeling paint, growing winter weeds, split boards, rusted hinges and all manner of things that need fixing up. Soon the home centers will be insanel

What would a man endowed with great wisdom from God say about life? Well, among many other things, he would say (about a dozen times) to listen to our parents. (Prov. 1:8) My son, hear the instruction of your father, And do not forsake the law of your mother; (Prov. 6:20) My son, keep your father’s command, And do not forsake the law of your mother. (Prov. 10:1) A wise son makes a glad father, But a foolish son is the grief of his mother. (Prov. 23:22) Listen to your fat

We all agree that the right church is the church that existed in the first century, the church of which Peter, John, James, and Paul were members. If we can find that same church existing in our day, it will still be the right church. How do we know when we find it? We must ascertain its essential identifying features. We then need to search for the church today that has the same features. When we find it, we will have found the right church. As we open our New Testaments, wh

(1 Chr 16:1-4, 7-12) So they brought the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD. Then he distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins. And he appointed some o

A commercial jet overflew it’s destination airport by 150 miles and might have gone a lot farther had a flight attendant not come into the cockpit 15 minutes after their scheduled arrival time to ask what time they would actually be landing! It was 2009 when Northwest Airlines flight 188 from San Diego to Minneapolis/St. Paul stopped responding to ATC for approximately 80 minutes. Air Traffic Control or ATC, coordinates the flights of ALL commercial air traffic in the United

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, snatch them in pity from sin and the grave. Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen, tell them of Jesus the Mighty to save.” Those sentiments, from Fanny J. Crosby, express an urgency for reaching out to the lost that is mostly absent among us. Who are the perishing? (Luke 13:3) “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” (John 3:16) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that

Driving with a GPS is a normal thing now. Drivers under 30 could hardly imagine being without one! Most of my driving was done before they were invented and I have been very lost before. Being truly lost is a thing of the past. If you have a smart phone and a signal, your phone will tell you where you are and street by street how to get to your goal. If you don’t follow the right path sometimes it will announce “make a U-turn.” That means you’re going the wrong way. The

Jack London's now famous novel, The Call of the Wild, was first published piece by piece in the Saturday Evening Post over the summer of 1903. It's the tale of a mixed breed dog, Buck, and his difficult life. The story follows his life transformation from a gentle dog into a wild beast, driven by wretched humans and other dogs. Ironically, the call of Jesus of Nazareth to mankind is the polar opposite; Jesus calls for us to tame our wild side and become like Him. Within each

There is no question that God would have his people be one. (John 17.) Unity is commended and division is condemned. (Psalm 133; 1 Corinthians 1:10.) Yet there must be no attempt at unity at the expense of loyalty to God's word. Any attempt to attain unity by tolerating evil is doomed to failure. If, by such means, any show of unity could be made, it would be merely in appearance rather than in reality. It would be a farce. The only unity worthy of the name is that which i

Daddy was special - hard working, honest, church-going, funny. He had a deep bass singing voice that thrilled me in church, and delighted me when he sang all manner of funny and crazy songs at home: Bullfrog Went a Courtin', Old Grogan's Goat, Beautiful K-a-a-ty, I'll Dance With the Dolly With a Hole in Her Stocking. Nor can I forget how he nipped my life of crime in the bud. I remember well the day. Late in the afternoon, daddy sent me into the grocery store to pick up a loa

What is great service? In the last few days I had some unexpected projects pop up around the house. That means stuff broke. We have a local hardware store about a mile from the house and that’s about as convenient as you can get! But... since they are small they are also very limited in what they can keep in stock. Lots of times I have checked there first only to discover they didn’t have what I needed. Yesterday when I needed some things. I jumped in the truck and ma

Last Sunday we gathered with our church family and friends for a meal together and we’ll do it again in two weeks. As is our custom, there was special recognition and honor given to our guests. We told everyone we wanted our guests served before the rest of us. I believe that’s the way it should be. I grew up in a home where my mother both taught and practiced that guests came first, then the rest. Sometimes that doesn’t happen when we gather for worship. Sometimes our g

In Philippines 2, we find one of the most powerful teachings on humility in all the Bible. Paul calls Christians to humility by stating, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others as more significant than themselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4-5). This poignant teaching really hits home when Paul then calls Christians to look to the example of Christ as the motivating f

Every time I get on the internet my phone or iPad is assaulted by advertisements. Pop-up windows, stuff running across the screen, bouncing, swirling graphics and videos are all designed to get our attention to click on them. The people behind those ads have a very specific target audience but to reach specific groups they must blanket everyone with the same ads. There’s a similarity in preaching. Preaching to a church audience treats everyone the same but they’re not the

Now as he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!” But he said, “I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason. For the king, before whom I also speak freely, knows these things; for I am convinced that none of these things escapes his attention, since this thing was not done in a corner.” (Acts 26:24-26) What should we expect from the world? Do we ever think, if we j

National politics sure do bring out some interesting points of view. Those in Hollywood, in the general news media and among the so-called Washington insiders are very bold to make their views known. More than once I heard Rush Limbaugh say that anyone who worked in or around those groups, and was a Republican, but especially a conservative Republican, had better keep their views quiet or they would be openly attacked. I’m assuming he meant verbally attacked for the most p

I heard about a group of Geography students who studied the Seven Wonders of the World. At the end of that section, the students were asked to list what they each considered to be the Seven Wonders of the World. Though there was some disagreement, the following got the most votes: Egypt's Great Pyramid, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, the Panama Canal, the Empire State Building, St. Peter's Basilica and China's Great Wall. While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that on

There is going to be a lot of loud conversations regarding the US Constitution. Most of us do not spend time discussing “substantive due process” which is the umbrella under which the supreme court in the past has “found” certain “rights” including abortion, same sex marriage and other controversial matters. In short, “’substantive due process’ is a term used in constitutional law discussions when the court has chosen to ‘protect’ certain rights even when those ‘rights’ are

Caleb (of “Joshua and Caleb” fame, Numbers 13, 14) stood just across the banks of the Jordan River, at a place called Gilgal. As one of two oldest of the people, in the process of taking the “Promised Land,” he wanted to make a special request of Joshua. Specifically, he wanted the land around Hebron. He said, “So now, give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there with great fortified cities” (Joshua 14:12

It is an undeniable truth that Jesus has a deep desire for his flock to live in unity. That truth comes to light in passages such as John 17:20-21. Jesus says, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Why does Jesus say it is so important for all of God’s children to b