One of the amazing things to read in the book of Ephesians is the encouragement of Paul the apostle to his audience. He reminds the Ephesians that they have been bought and paid for by Jesus Christ. They belong to the Creator of the Universe, and Ephesians 4 goes on to tell us that God has includ...

One of the amazing things to read in the book of Ephesians is the encouragement of Paul the apostle to his audience. He reminds the Ephesians that they have been bought and paid for by Jesus Christ. They belong to the Creator of the Universe, and Ephesians 4 goes on to tell us that God has includ...

One of the amazing things to read in the book of Ephesians is the encouragement of Paul the apostle to his audience. He reminds the Ephesians that they have been bought and paid for by Jesus Christ. They belong to the Creator of the Universe, and Ephesians 4 goes on to tell us that God has includ...

It is amazing to me that we have the greatest communication pathways in all of human history, and yet we use them to gossip and argue and grandstand. Our turmoil has been amplified as our voices have been. Thanks to online resources, we also have the most opportunity to know,
study, and contempla...

Paul had returned to Jerusalem. He was in the Temple when the Jews from Asia stirred up the crowd of people against him and dragged him out. They accused him of all kinds of blasphemy and violations of religious laws. Paul was making his case, as he had done many times before,
in front of the Sad...

Before Caesarea was built by Herod to secure his position with Rome, it was a place named Straton’s (Strato’s) Tower. It was a seaport founded in the 4th century BC by a Sidonian king named Abdashtart. In 96 BC, it was brought under Jewish control by the Hasmonean ruler Alexander Jannaeus. In 63 ...

To follow Christ will mean that sometimes our plans are changed or redirected by God; sometimes He changes our day and the things that happen to us. I have often gone about my day not paying too much attention, even when things don’t go the way they normally would or how I’ve planned them out. La...

God knows our future. This is such a strange concept for us to wrap our minds around. There is comfort in it though: God is faithful to prepare us for what is to come. It is wise for us to set our minds and hearts on seeking God in all things, so that He can direct and guide us. Rather than doing...

There has been a lot of confusion over how we should define faith. Today, you’ll find that it means different things to different people. The modern dictionary catches part of its Biblical meaning as it defines faith as a confidence or trust in a person or thing. In Greek, which is the language t...

How do we live for a God that we can’t see in this physical life? This is a question we must all wrestle with in our Christian walk. The Scriptures give us much guidance in how to live a godly life, but in our day-to-day decisions we must make practical choices that don’t always have obvious righ...

There are so many ways that we do not pay attention to ourselves in today’s busy world. Don’t get me wrong, I recognize that today’s world is all about us, but it is about us in all the wrong ways. Our music teaches us to prioritize our wants and desires above all else, the products we buy appeal...

From my years pastoring, I know firsthand the temptation we sometimes feel to copy ministries that are doing well. Sometimes this urge comes from a good place; we see a ministry truly helping people and want to replicate that in our own churches or ministries. Other times this urge comes from bad...

When I was growing up a common response to something you didn’t like was, “Grow up!” Obviously, the idea was that whatever the person had said or was doing was something a baby would do. Apparently, when the early Church was being founded, a common response to people whose behavior you didn’t lik...

The Church is supposed to be different from the world. Our relationship with God makes us unique. The Church is not supposed to be an optimist club, neither is it a way that we can identify ourselves as good people. The Church is the Kingdom of God! We are broken people, redeemed by Christ, being...

The Church has order. It should not be unorganized. The Church did not happen by chance. It was not unplanned, nor a backup plan. God ordained the Church from the beginning of time. Jesus mentioned the Church for the first time in Matthew 16:18, which says, “And I also say to you that you are Pet...

The ancient city of Corinth was not exactly an easy place to develop a Christian church with strong character. Their culture was notoriously dark and morally bankrupt. It was a city that carried a stigma. Yet, here, God grew a church. Paul lived there for some time greater than a year to teach, c...

Today’s world is full of prophets and people who claim to speak for God. How do you know if they are true and right? How can you tell if someone is speaking for God or secretly against God? As Paul the apostle was writing his second letter to the Corinthians, he had to face such issues. This mean...

Our Western world tends to focus mainly on money as the best way to find fulfillment in our lives—as if money is the ultimate reason for living. Everything we do is measured by the money we have or can get. Arguments over taxes, conflict in prices over goods, and the way in which we gain or save ...

I grew up thinking that a real man was someone who did everything his own way, and that I, too, needed to make my own way in the world my way, that all the decisions were mine and mine alone. Then I encountered absolute power and strength: Jesus Christ. The One who conquered death itself and whos...

I heard a story told years ago about a man who was marooned on a desert island for ten years. He was surrounded by nothing but salt water. Then one day, a ship was passing by and saw his call for help. They sent a smaller boat to the island and found him. The man was so grateful! Looking around, ...

The ancient city of Ephesus is mentioned over twenty times in the New Testament! Quite a few key Biblical figures spent time ministering there including Paul, Timothy, and John the apostle. The importance of Ephesus had a lot to do with its location. It was an important seaport and so it saw a lo...