The purpose of our lives is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to love Him supremely and worship Him in spirit and in truth. We are to worship the Lord every day and all throughout the day. That includes worshiping Christ in church. The church assembles to worship the Lord and for the saints to be edified. Ephesians 4:16 teaches that because Christ is the Head of the church, that the church increases spiritually and edifies itself. “From whom the whole body fitly joined

The Bible tells us to pray. A verse as short as “Pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5:17) summarizes our obligation to pray and implies the Lord’s desire to hear and answer our prayer. When you have great needs, pray. When you have small needs, pray. When you have big decisions, or when you have small decisions, pray. When you carry a heavy burden, or when you struggle with worry or fear or doubt, pray. When disappointment or sorrow pierce your soul, or when negative emotions be

When the Lord triumphs, when He gets the victory, He is worthy to be praised. The Lord gained the victory when He saved your soul. The Lord triumphed in Exodus 15 when He led Israel across the Red Sea and drowned the entire Egyptian army. Israel was trapped: the sea was in front of them and the Egyptian army behind them, but the Lord delivered with His mighty hand. “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LO

The Lord Jesus saves us so that we might glorify Him. To do that, we must learn of Him and follow Him. The two duties go together. Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Mt. 11:28). When we learn about Jesus, we find that He is meek and lowly in heart. However, learning of Jesus requires that we take His yoke upon us. In other words, we must willingly come under His command if we are goin

In the last couple of weeks, we have seen several saints of God go home to be with the Lord. On our side, there is sorrow. We miss them. We loved them. We are thankful for the godly influence they had on us. On their side, their race is over. The Apostle Paul, at the end of his life, said “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (II Tim. 4:7). The NT uses many analogies for the Christian life, including that of a race. The Christian life

The Bible tells us twice, “and before honour is humility” (Pro. 1:33; 18:12). When the Lord gives honor, it comes after a person gains humility. Most people want honor, but seldom are they willing to be humbled. When a person is humble and honor comes, he knows that whatever good thing took place, the Lord did it; and the Lord is the One who deserves the honor. However, when man chases honor, his own exaltation results in pride, and pride brings destruction. The road to honor

So many things about life are uncertain, and we certainly live in uncertain times. We don't know what our future physical health will be; we don't know how government decisions will personally affect us; we don't know how the economy or our personal finances will hold up. We don't know what tomorrow will bring, but the Lord does. What we can't do is worry about tomorrow. Jesus taught His disciples in Matthew 6 that it does no good to take thought for tomorrow: "What shall we

One of the things we see in Genesis is that sin is the cause of all that is destructive. It also shows us that sin separates us from God, and it separates us from each other. When we are separated, we feel alone. A person can feel alone yet be surrounded by people. In fact, a person can feel alone in his own home. The sense of aloneness is heightened by rejection. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were separated from God, alone. Sin also placed a barrier between the two of them

The psalmist said in Psalm 119:11, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." Hiding God's Word in our heart helps to keep us from sinning. You see, when God's Word is in your heart, it is in the core of who you are. It is in the part of you that is the foundation of your thoughts, will, and emotion. When you hide God's Word in your heart, you put it deeply down in you, as though there is no chance for it's escaping. You do this because you want t

The United States is an exceptional country, officially 250 years old. The Lord has blessed our country with abundant natural resources, wide-ranging borders, access to waterways and oceans, capitalism, a pioneer mindset, and some of the most brilliant innovators of modern times. Also included in these blessings are our founding fathers, who established a constitutional republic, and desired "a more perfect union." The earliest days of our country set the trajectory for what

Someday, all things will be made new: a new heaven and a new earth. John writes in Revelation 21 that he saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, like a bride adorned for her husband. Here's what comes next: a voice saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." That is the great blessing of eternity: for God to dwell with us a

When the Lord sent the prophet Jeremiah to preach to the southern kingdom of Judah, He sent him with directions, some of which were expected, some perhaps surprising, but all reassuring. "Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth" (Jer. 1:9). Praise the Lord for His Word! It is God's Word that changes men's hearts. Having His Word is the part we would expect. But notice the next verse: "See, I h

The difficulties we go through as believers come with a promise: that all things work together for good to them that love God. We are familiar with Romans 8:28, and we love Romans 8:28. In the moment, we may not see how all things work together for good, but by faith we know that they do. Overall, God uses the situations in our lives to conform us to the image of Christ. Whatever the ordeal, God is at work sanctifying us. That gives us comfort. Whether the situation is a tria

One of the fundamental traits of manhood is responsibility. Part of what it means to be a man is to take responsibility and to do well with one's duties. In Genesis 1:26-28 God chose to make man, and to make him in His own image and after His likeness. From there, God gave man responsibility: to subdue the earth and to have dominion over everything in it. Responsibility means working. Man was created to work, originally in the Garden, to dress it and to keep it (Gen. 2:8, 15)

When considering a hymnal to sing from as a church, first and foremost, the words we sing must be Scriptural. They should be words of the nature of God, the deliverance of God, the works of God, the faithfulness of God, and the love and goodness of God. They are also songs of testimony about what God has done to save us, to deliver us, to protect us, and to comfort us. The psalmists write repeatedly of what God had done for them and about their fellowship with Him. They are p

O the importance of hearing instruction! Listen to the inspired words of Solomon: “ Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. 2 For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law ” (Pro. 4:1-2). The instruction of a father is the instructions that a father gives. As a general principle, a child might agree that he should hear and receive what his dad says, but where the rubber meets the road is if he receives a particular instruction

When Jesus died on the cross, He died for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2 says, “ And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world .” Jesus satisfies God’s wrath for our sins when He died for our sins (cf. I Cor. 15:3). Think of that: He died for our sins (plural). How many sins is that? When Jesus asked the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane if it be possible to let the cup pass from Him, He was speaking of th

The Lord wants His churches active in reaching lost souls for Christ. Jesus commanded His church, “ Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature ” (Mk. 16:15). Spread out, into every continent, every country, and every culture and preach the gospel. Preach it to “ every creature .” There are 197 countries in the world today, with a total population of 8.3 billion. They all need to be evangelized. How will they hear? A preacher. How will the preachers get

God has a plan for His people Israel. The covenants that God made in the OT with His people—the Abrahamic Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant—are eternal. During the seven-year Tribulation, the Lord will work to redeem His people. In that day, one third of the Jews will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation ((Zech. 13:8). Zechariah 12:10b foretells that the Jewish people will have one last chance to receive Christ when they see Him coming back to sl

None of us can presume our obedience in the Christian life. All of us must fight the good fight of faith. We all have the same adversary. Peter says that our adversary is the devil. “ Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour ” (I Pet. 5:8). Satan seeks to destroy us; so, we must restrain ourselves (our thinking, our actions, our desires, our emotions, our speech), and we must be ever vigilant, ever w