In James 1:12, James speaks of a Christian man who endures temptation. This is the child of God who is targeted by Satan because he leans on the strength of the Lord to overcome the powerful road blocks that are put in his way as he strives to obey God.

Sometimes my mind goes wandering back To an old familiar country road. I can smell sweet honeysuckle blooms Beside a creek that gleamed as it flowed.

It’s easy to find fault with others, isn’t it? But let’s think about the following thoughts: If it’s the case that our all-knowing God is the only entity who knows everything about us (1 John 3:20; cf. Matthew 10:30), including our mistakes and frailties (Psalm 39:4-7), and if it’s the case that we as mortal […]

When the church in Jerusalem heard that people in Antioch had turned to the Lord, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. The Bible says that when Barnabas had arrived and had seen the grace of God, he was glad “and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord” (Acts 11:23 […]

The story is told of a farmer and his son who went into the field to check the progress of the wheat crop. The boy looked across the waving grain stalks. He noticed that in the field, many stalks were bending over while others were standing tall.

Never go to your church or meetings held there, If you do go, be late, it’s no one’s affair. If the weather is bad, either too hot or snowing, Just stay home and rest, for there’ll be others going.

Driving my usual route home one day, I noticed the handwritten sign in front of a large church building. In big, bold letters, someone had written….”God is watching you.” That caught my eye. Of course, He is watching me but seeing those words in print made me think how much God really does know about […]

The above titled article written by Leslie Diestelkamp (1911-1995), first appeared in the publication, THINK, Vol. 8, No. 4, dated July-August, 1977. The article points out the fact that if we love Jesus, we’ll love our neighbors without respect of persons (James 2:9).

Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde once remarked, “I can resist anything but temptation” (source). He obviously understood human weakness and frailty. The follower of Christ who yields to temptation, soon becomes separated from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). He or she is then classified as one who has “missed the mark” (Strong’s 266) — a sinner […]

“Bloom where you are planted,” I heard a quiet voice say: “But, Lord,” I protested, “I’m getting older, and beginning to get gray.

In Psalm 55:8-14, David writes about his dire circumstances in the form of violence, oppression, and strife, stirred up by the disloyalty of a friend. Fear, terror, pain, anxiety and restlessness overwhelmed him (Psalm 55:4-5).

Unless a man can control his passions, desires, and fears, he is not in possession of himself (Proverbs 16:32; Proverbs 25:28). No man is truly free who is not in command of himself. Since the Scriptures teach that a man’s worth is measured, not in terms of what he possesses (Luke 12:14-15), but by the […]

After getting stocked up on some groceries and putting them in the trunk of my car yesterday afternoon, I unlocked my car, opened the door, and heard a “ping, ping, ping, ping, ping” sound. That sound should have alerted me as to something not being quite right with my car, but it didn’t register in […]

Women love shoes. Just look in their closets. It was discovered that Imelda Marcos, wife of the deposed dictator of the Philippines, had hundreds of pairs of shoes.

In our world today, we have need of filters of all sorts. We filter the air and water in our homes. We use filters for fuel, air, and oil in our automobiles. We even have various filters in the human body. Lungs, kidneys, stomach, and even hair serve in such capacities. Many of us also […]

The formation of a natural pearl begins when a foreign substance (such as a grain of sand) slips into an oyster between its mantle and shell, irritating the mantle (see illustration).

Anyone who has undergone any kind of adversity, knows that adversity tests whether or not we will turn tail and run or stand up to life’s challenges as people of faith (cf. Acts 4:1-21; Acts 5:17-41). One might think that the opposite of adversity is prosperity, but that’s not so. Rather, prosperity is a character […]

Have we ever gone to the store to buy a needed item, later to discover we already had the very thing we wanted —  tucked away and forgotten?

In Luke 9:23, the text reads: “And he said to them all, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Brother Edwin Crozier, preacher for the Brownsburg congregation in Brownsburg, Indiana, provides us with the following interpretation of the above verse in this […]

Have we ever been stuck in an foreign airport four thousand miles from home due to flight delays caused by inclement weather? While most of us would find such an inconvenience intolerable, one man experienced God’s providence in his delay. As he waited out his forced stay, he looked for opportunities to connect with his […]