"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…

When one disregards the sacredness of that which belongs to God he can hardly be expected to be reliable in his word and in dealings with others. He can be depended upon only so far as business policy, public sentiment or some such motive many seem to him best in promoting his own selfish interests.

To some, these statements may seem extreme. But, are they? Can you expect one who does not respect that which belongs to God to respect that which belongs to man? Why should you? A man who will sacrifice his religious principles for profit will also…

Ezekiel 18 is a marvelous chapter on the fairness and justice of God. Its message is in an Old Testament setting, but it portrays and attribute of God which is unchanged; and it should be read today ---- with care.

The Israelites had a proverb: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge" ----by which they blamed their troubles on an earlier generation. God said, yes, your fathers sinned, but "ye have done evil more than your fathers." "Every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grapes, his…

Three men rebel against hypocrisy, but they vary greatly in their reactions. The first man turns to total moral abandonment. He throws off all restraint as he gives himself to the fulfillment of every fleshly desire. "Self" becomes his god. He hardens himself to the tears of his family as he goes out to do what he wants to do His "justification" for his shameful conduct: "At least I'm not a hypocrite!"

The second man goes to the opposite extreme. He is fed up with the weakness and hypocrisy that he sees in all the churches, and he is not…

After Jesus' death and resurrection, there were two disciples who were distressed about all the events they had witnessed.  The explained as much to a stranger they met on the road to Emmaus.  They were unsure about Jesus' death at the hand of the Romans and the Jewish leadership, because they believed Him to be the promised Messiah.  They were distraught about all the people had turned against such an obviously popular teacher.  Beyond all this, they were confused about the reports by some women that Jesus' tomb had been empty after three days. (Luke 24:13-24)

The stranger, who…

One of the hard things when teaching others about metaphor, simile, and allegory is trying to also explain that there are limits to how far one should take them.  Describing someone as a “bull in a china shop” is not intended to make a statement about their servingware shopping habits.  My wife will sometimes refer to the children as “full of beans” and invariably, one of them will inquire about their recent diet.  These simple misunderstandings may be innocent enough in making jokes and puns, but we must be careful that we do not bring these same problems to the…

With the prevalence of media in our everyday culture, most of us recognize when we hear, "Do you feel lucky, punk?" that someone is quoting a movie.  The same goes with “Play it again, Sam,” and “I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto.”  The problem is that as popular as these lines are, they do not appear in Dirty Harry, Casablanca, or The Wizard of Oz.  They are misquotations that have lived on in our public conscience, albeit incorrectly.  This can happen so easily because we very often will rely on our memory of the movie instead of actually watching…

So much of our national interest in productivity is actually about setting priorities.  We all have the same amount of time each day, but some people are perpetually accomplishing more than others.  Poor prioritization makes us seem very busy, without accomplishing the things that truly matter.  By spending our time on less-important tasks, we never accomplish those things that make the biggest difference.

This same problem is partially to blame on the lack of biblical literacy in the world today, and even in the church.  All people have the same amount of time, but only some people use that…

When Jesus was being harangued by the Jews on Hanukkah (the Feast of Dedication) in John 10 (vss. 22-30) about whether He was the Messiah, His answer was that He and the Father were “one.”  This statement was so radical, that the Jews interviewing Him were ready immediately to stone Him for blasphemy.  Jesus' answer to them in this case is very interesting.

“Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him,…

Human beings are often too clever for their own good.  Many of the problems that we face on earth are due to our own arrogance, and even sometimes our attempts out “outsmart” God and the world that He made for us.  We are experts at trying to exempt ourselves even from the responsibilities that we can readily see that we bear.

This mentality is seen in the man who approached Jesus and wanted to know, “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25-37)  We know from this text that the man was a lawyer, which isn’t the…