"Rejoice always" (1 Thes 5:15). "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law" (Gal 5:22,23).

JOY -- "a feeling of delight, happiness, gladness" (American Heritage Dictionary)

Christians are often thought of by people in the world as sad, dull people who never have any fun and do not enjoy life. Nothing could be further from the truth! (There may be some Christians like that who haven't fully realized that or captured the real meaning of Christianity). The life of a Christian is one of joy, happiness and…

This is a question asked by preachers who teach that one is saved before and without baptism. It confuses people and even the one raising it may be confused. Are we talking about right as opposed to left, or right as opposed to wrong? Notice (if we’re talking about left and right):

LEFT                  RIGHT

Saved?               Baptized?

One might say, “Yes, I was saved first and then was baptized. So my baptism was on the right side (as opposed to left) of my salvation.”

But the answer changes when we’re…

Instruments of music were abundant under the Law of Moses (and in pagan religions). Their invention is first mentioned in Genesis 4:21. Many instruments were used in worship. There were specific commands to sing ad specific commands to play and one did not include the other. Our dictionaries also distinguish one from the other.

The Law of Moses was a covenant between God and the nation of Israel. It was not a covenant with Gentiles or with Christians. This law was done away at the death of Christ and those under it were discharged from it (Col. 2: 14-17; Rom. 7:4;…

It is reported that several years ago researchers did a study to determine the effect hope has on those undergoing hardship.  Two sets of laboratory rats were placed in separate tubs of water from which they could not escape unaided.  The researchers left one set in the water and found that within an hour the exhausted rats all drowned.

The other rats were periodically lifted out of the water and then returned.  These animals swam for over 24 hours.  Why?  Not because they were given rest, but because they had hope!  They had come to believe that if they held…

A deer hunter in Indianapolis, Indiana, fell out of a tree stand and suffered a severe spinal injury which paralyzed him from the shoulders down. The 32-year-old man was asked if he wanted to live in that state, to which he emphatically answered “no.” Life support was removed and he died five hours later.

Certainly the great Judge of all the earth will do what is right for this man (Genesis 18:25), and I do not wish to judge him lest I be found in error in my judging. But the article went on to say that…

One of the challenges that we face as children of God is to learn to wait on the Lord. Waiting for anything is hard. Most of us want what we want on our time schedule, which usually means we want it sooner than later. This mentality sometimes creeps into our personal dealings with God. When we are anticipating a particular blessing from God, perhaps something for which we have recently prayed, it is easy to lose patience when the blessing doesn’t arrive when we think it should. Once in a while we forget that God operates on His own time…

Have you ever noticed that in John 4 the apostles went into Sychar, came back out to Jesus, and not one single person started following Jesus. Yet, the Samaritan woman went into the exact same city and many of the Samaritans came out to see Jesus. Many of those came out began to believe in Jesus. (John 4:39-42)

Why did this happen? I see two reasons. The first is a shortcoming on the part of the apostles and the second was an advantage on the part of the Samaritan woman.

First, the apostles’ shortcoming: The apostles…

God has given us great illustrations of faithfulness, couched in the character and personalities of men. For instance, have you ever considered:

The faithfulness of Abraham? Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees of his own free will, choosing deliberately to go out, “not knowing whither he went.” Think about that. You want to talk about faith? “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,” (Heb. 11:9), “for he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God” (11:10). He saw, by the eye of faith, something better. Do…

A true Christian is the best friend any government can have. This is not usually understood, especially by governments that have never grasped the meaning of true Christianity. Thus, Christians have often been persecuted as subversive to the government. In the Old Testament their own people governed the people of God, with God at the top. It was a theocracy. The Jew's religion and his government were intertwined. Apparently God felt this was necessary to insure that the promise he made to Abraham would be fulfilled, for God saw no need for such an arrangement after Christ came. In the…

The fundamental fallacy of the modern environmental movement is its inherent denial of supernaturalism and metaphysical reality. Rather than acknowledging that the entire Universe was created by the transcendent God of the Bible, Who both prepared and perpetuates the Earth for human habitation (Genesis 1:1-2:19; 8:22;Hebrews 11:3), the environmental movement posits an eternal Universe that must be protected and preserved by humans in order for life to continue. The future of the Earth is viewed as dependent on mankind. If man damages the fragile environment, he is hastening its imminent demise.

It…