Some places are far easier to read and apply to your life than others. It’s highly recommended that you start with the Psalms, which is a book of prayers and poems in the Old Testament, and with the Gospels, which are the first four books in the New Testament. You can pick whichever one you’d like:Matthew reflects the Jewish roots most heavily.Mark

The Bible places such a strong emphasis on these orphans and on adoption because of the massive vulnerability and lack of agency they had. Proverbs 31:8 tells us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.One of the ways we can do so is to adopt them into our own families.What does the Bible say about spiritual adoption? Even if we have

The First Gift of Suffering: It Sanctifies UsI needed to retrain my mind and the ideas I personally had concerning love so that I could understand suffering for Christ as a benefit and not a loss. When I was growing up, I was completely drawn to the idea of love. I had a bent in my heart towards being kind, patient, and forgiving towards others.Wit

I contacted my cousin, whom I’ll call Jeffrey, after I heard of his near-death experience. I wanted to find out more about what happened. I was concerned about his spiritual condition. Decades had passed since we saw or contacted each other.Jeffrey wrote back, delighted to receive my letter. He said that several years ago, when he was swimming at a

The parable in Matthew 25 makes it clear that God expects interest, a return from the treasure He entrusted to us. Everyone who has the Spirit of God has been given at least one spiritual gift with which to build up the body of Christ, the Church. We aren’t given the option of using our gifts/roles/functions in the body. It is God’s will that we us

Silver: Silver is symbolic for the Word of God, divinity, salvation, and refining (Psalm 66:10).Scarlet: Scarlet can represent sin (Isaiah 1:18), but it also refers to royalty (Daniel 5:16).Bronze: Bronze stands for strength and durability. As an alloy, it is hard and durable and was used to make the ten brazen lavers, which were basins for washing

Can Rich People Be Saved?The short answer to the question is yes. After making this statement Jesus’ disciples asked him a question:“The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God’” (Mark 10:26-27).T

So the good news is that God will never leave you or forsake you, but here’s the bad news: He will never leave you, and He will never forsake you, and that ought to produce in you a healthy amount of fear and trembling.Because if you are in a pattern of unrepentant sin, here’s His promise to you: He will move heaven and earth to make sure He comple

“The LORD is my light and my salvation- so why should I be afraid? The LORD is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?” (Psalm 27:1).“God is my strong fortress, and he makes my way perfect” (2 Samuel 22:33)“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (

1. In the fields“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world” (Psalm 19:1-4).David w

Who Wrote 1 Timothy? The letters to Timothy were written by the Apostle Paul. They are a part of what are commonly called the Pastoral epistles, which include 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. Timothy was Paul’s younger protégé and was a pastor in the church of Ephesus. Paul’s message to him was to encourage him in his role.The first letter to Timothy giv

Obedience is a mark of our love for God. In John 14:21 (NIV) it says, "whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them." Practically, this means knowing Jesus personally, coming to the Father through Him and walking in the Spirit in our

Before saying any more, we should note one similarity between the fate of the saved and the lost. At the moment of death, the body is buried in the grave while the soul enters a new realm. For the believer, the moment of death brings him into the personal presence of Christ. For the unbeliever, death begins an experience of unending conscious punis

1. Read the whole story of the Bible. Many of us learned to read the Bible from children’s Bible storybooks made up of individual stories—Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, Jonah and the big fish (of course it was Jonah and the whale back then), the boy’s five loaves and two fish, and so on. We learned to look for stories, snippets of Scripture. And

Once they get relief, they go right back to the things that got them into trouble. That’s why, regardless of how much faith you may have, you may not see the fulfillment of the promise. The reason is because you have not aligned yourself with the condition of the promise.My People Who Are Called by My Name“If my people, who are called by my name, w

Pilgrimage: As described in this article, the prayer is only just the start. We may receive justification (a one-time event that assures a believer of eternal salvation), but we must continue to run the race of life. We must continue to allow the Lord to transform us (sanctification). We call it a Christian walk, journey, or pilgrimage for a reason

The One Year Bible NIVThe best-selling One Year Bible, which helps you read the entire Bible in as little as 15 minutes a day, has been updated in a new look and comes in both portable compact size and full size. The One Year Bible divides God's Word into daily readings from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs, creating an achiev

Fear of Losing the Image of Superiority. Holding an offense against another person places us in a "good guy, bad guy" picture with ourselves wearing the white hat. Imagining that we are better than others makes us feel good, but such a prideful attitude is unacceptable to God. When we hold people captive to our judgment, we play God in their lives.

Still reading?A statement like that might have some of you feeling nervous. After all, there are two ends to the spectrum when thinking about the gospel and social engagement.At one end, there are those who are very concerned about personal devotion- sometimes even to the exclusion of any public engagement. In fact, they may even be suspicious of C

Who Coined the Phrase "Bible Belt"?The phrase was first used by that cheeky and cynical American journalist icon, H.L. Mencken (1880-1956). Mencken, a Baltimore Sun writer for his entire career, was no harmless humorist. The son of Baltimore German-American aristocracy by way of a cigar factory fortune, Henry Louis Mencken was an ideologue, a write