Are you impulsive?Are you easily angered?Do you often make decisions without considering the consequences?While the sword can represent a person who reacts violently or aggressively, it can also represent someone who reacts impulsively and recklessly. The person who acts before they think will often face consequences they never considered. In essen

For Individuals:1. Develop a relationship with a family that is fostering. Ideally this would be a family in your church, but it doesn’t have to be.2. Don’t forget “kinship” placement families (where children are fostered with a relative). These are often underserved for a variety of reasons. People make assumptions that a child is fine since he/sh

2) The fear that we might not be happy3) The fear that we might not be safe4) The fear that our relational needs might not be metIn other words, Wolgemuth said, we have fears about “provision, pleasure, protection, and personal relationships.” Fears are natural and, humanly speaking, worry is understandable, but the heart of the matter is that once

As you can see from so many of these questions, your answer to some of them determines whether or not you could be considered a Christian in any meaningful sense of the term. But others’ answers are secondary or tertiary. Yet, almost everything is being deconstructed these days.Is that a good thing or a bad thing?Is Deconstruction a Bad Thing?A man

So, Who Was Andrew? Andrew was the brother of Simon, also known as Peter. One thing that is safe to say is Andrew appears to have a different personality to Peter. The Bible records much of what Peter says, and he always seemed willing to speak his mind. However, the Bible records very little of what Andrew said. Perhaps it’s because he didn’t say

What Did This Mean for the Early Church?From Acts 5:42, we can deduce the church grew and the influence of the Sanhedrin diminished. In fact, the Sanhedrin disbanded (officially) in AD 70 when Rome sacked Jerusalem. The church, however, multiplied greatly. Early Christians were no doubt buoyed by the response and actions of the Apostles, and Acts 6

What Does the Bible Say about Dieting? There are only a few places in the Bible where the idea of controlled eating is addressed outside of the Old Testament law. During the time after God gave the Ten Commandments, up to the resurrection of Christ and even today among practicing Jews, certain foods were forbidden because they were considered uncle

1. Be Informed When Jesus spoke, He spoke in the fullness of His authority as the Son of God and as the Word of God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). He did not speak in ignorance.When believers engage with one another, or with people who are not Christians, about a topic, it is important

5. The Priestly Covenant: When looking among the Levites for a High Priest, God ordained and made a covenant with Aaron and his descendants that they would be His priests, able to go before the altar at the appointed times as recorded in Numbers 18.6. The Davidic Covenant: In 2 Samuel 7, God promised to establish an eternal kingdom from David’s lin

9. Jesus, protect my baby as he sleeps in his crib alone for the first time. I might have all the technology in the world at my fingertips, but You, mighty Lord, are sovereign over all. Thank You!10. Lord, protect my baby from anything that might creep into his mind. Protect him from nightmares and bad images as he sleeps. And protect him from the

1. Leviticus Reveals the Value of all Scripture “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspire

Those angels will face the judgment of God. “And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—-these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.” (Jude 1:6 NIV)Angels are important creations of God. We are called to worship God, not angels. “Do not let anyone

A Prayer for Hope Father,Your word tells us hope abides. How can I falter when I know You and know this to be true? I confess I get weak, Lord, but that’s only when I turn my eyes away from You. When you told Peter to walk to You on the water, He came at once and then looked down. That’s when he faltered. Give me hope to keep my eyes fixed on You,

Why Do We Pray before We Eat? Beginning early in Genesis, there is a connection between food and prayers of thanks, primarily starting with the Levitical Law. Under the law, there were certain sacrifices the people made to God in the tabernacle, and eventually the temple.The priests of the tabernacle and temple were from the tribe of Levi, who did

Taken literally and the church would be filled with one-eyed teenage boys. However, as Christ was warning about the severity of sexual sin, adultery, and letting lust run rampant in one’s life, He utilized a hyperbolic example to urge men to take the consequences of sexual sin seriously, lest they fall into ruin.These techniques spotlighted key les

2. There Is a SeparationRegardless of how you parse out the details in this passage, there is one thing that is certain — there is a separation between sheep and goats. And that separation has eternal consequences. That is the point that Jesus is making with each of these illustrations. How we respond to Jesus matters for eternity.In this sense, th

What Year Did Jesus Die? The Gospels each give pieces that create a timeline that illuminates not only what happened to Jesus over the course of what is now called Good Friday, but when in history these events occurred. The year that Jesus is traditionally believed to have died is thought to be around 30 to 33 AD, here's why:They all agree the gove

1. Refreshment for Your Soul “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:1-3).The beginning of this well-known, beloved Psalm reminds us that the Lord’s shepherding always brings refreshment.

I have often heard that angels come to deliver a message or execute judgment. They are very large and usually scare people to death when they see them. When angels have come to deliver a message, they usually have to say fear not. There is also mention of cherubims in Revelation 4:7-8.What Did God Tell Adam and Eve Before They Left the Garden of Ed

3. Jesus Became Flesh to Fulfill the Demands of God’s Laws for Humanity“For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3).“Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but th