Recently my wife and I were re-watching the classic 1960 western The Magnificent Seven. If you’re not familiar with it, the movie is about seven tough guys who are hired by a poor farming village to fight off a marauding gang of bandits. The cast includes screen legends Yul Brynner, James Coburn, Steve McQueen, and Charles Bronson.

As we watched, I was struck by one scene in particular. Several of the village boys have taken a liking to one of the gunfighters, Bernardo O’Reilly (played by Bronson), and want to be like…

This week we celebrate our national Thanksgiving holiday. The holiday got its “official” start in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation inviting Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November “as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.” Thanksgiving’s traditional origin dates much earlier, to a harvest feast celebrated in 1621 by the recently-arrived Plymouth colonists and local natives. Some date it even earlier, to a service of praise and thanksgiving held in 1579 during English captain Martin Frobisher’s expedition to the New World…

The unique expression of John is recorded in Revelation 1:10, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.”  Of what other day could John be speaking than the first day of the week?  The first day is still a most significant day to the Lord’s people.

Each of the four narratives of Jesus’ life directs our attention to the day (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1).  We should be careful not to overlook a fact so strongly emphasized – the day of Jesus’ dramatic resurrection.  The great day of Pentecost follows (Acts 2), a feast day that always…

To answer that question, we first need to define what a church is. If you are like most people when you hear the word church, you think of the first Merriam-Webster definition; a building for public and especially Christian worship. But in the Bible, the Greek word for church, ekklésia, means an assembly or congregation. When Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:2 “to the church of God that is in Corinth,” he was not describing a building, but a congregation of believers. Acts 2:47 shows us that after being saved through baptism, “the Lord added to their number day by…

It is saddening that many children grow up with little or no knowledge of the word of God.  If “righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people,” a knowledge of the scriptures will encourage the one and discourage the other (Prov. 14:34).

In the very nature of the case, parents are responsible for the children they bring into the world.  An infant needs to grow morally and spiritually as well as physically and mentally.  But parents who are diligent in training the bodies and minds of their children often are unconcerned about their spiritual development. 

God has always…

If you were to drive down the road and pass any gym or fitness center, you might notice the parking lot to be at maximum capacity.  Peering through the windows, you might even see people having to wait to use treadmills or other workout equipment because people are everywhere.  That is a stark contrast from just a week or two before when driving past the same fitness center there might be only a few regulars in there and someone could choose any piece of equipment they wanted.  Why such a change?  Well, we all know the answer to that –…

“Who say ye that I am?” is the question with which Jesus confronted the twelve at Caesarea Philippi. Men and women of our day are no less challenged to answer the same question, a question upon which hangs the very meaning of life itself. Who is this whose influence has cast itself powerfully across nineteen centuries?

The only Jesus we may know is the one whose story is written in the New Testament by His close companions and disciples. This is the “historical Jesus.” If we attack their simple, straightforward accounts as unreliable, we have burned the only bridge by which…

    “May your days be merry and bright.”  That’s not a problem for me during this season.  I love everything about it: the decorations, the music, the movies, the cooler weather, the family traditions. I think strangers are even friendlier to one another when they pass on the street, exchanging a chipper “good morning” on a cool, brisk day.  

    But to some, this is not “the most wonderful time of the year.”  The Holiday Blues are real.  They usher in periods of pain, sadness, and even depression.  While I’m enjoying a predictable plot on some Hallmark movie, another might…

    Over the course of my lifetime wartime conflicts have taken place, mostly in the Middle East and Africa. Even now there is again another war going on in the Middle East region.  It is very hard to ignore exactly what is happening and what drives these wars, particularly in the Middle East.  Both sides of the current conflict look to spiritual issues as their driving force, just as we Christians should do in regards to our everyday life.  Mark 9:50 tells us to “be at peace with one another.”  Is that our attitude as we live here in our…

    Galatians 6:2 reads, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”  The dictionary defines “burden” as “something carried, often too heavy to carry easily - a load of things, work, duty, financial cares, worries, sorrows”.  Certainly, the scripture calls the Christian to care for the physical needs and burdens of our fellow man and brethren.  Consider, for example, the story of the “Good Samaritan” or perhaps Jesus’ description in Matthew 25: 31-44 of the final judgment where the deciding factors for eternal life versus damnation revolved around how we cared for the physical needs of others…

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“Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16).  A seemingly simple statement that is not so simple to do.  Why is it so hard to confess your sins?  I can’t speak for everyone, but I can speak for myself, and I think it applies to others as well:  PRIDE.

Why does pride keep me from confessing my sins?  I wear a mask, metaphorically speaking.  I don’t like dressing up and wearing a mask for a costume, I really don’t like wearing costumes at all.  The metaphorical mask I wear is that…