When I was an associate pastor in far west Kentucky, I got a call one day from an elderly man in our church who had sprung a water leak under his mobile home. You know, sometimes along with being a preacher, pastors also moonlight as plumbers. So, I headed over to give him a hand.…
In Romans chapter 5, verse 12, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul says something rather perplexing. He wrote, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” He’s talking about Adam here. We read in the book of Genesis…
I remember one time as a kid, I had done something really bad, and my daddy took his belt off and was fixing to wear me out, and rightly so. But out of nowhere came my little brother, and he immediately started begging my daddy, “Dad, Dad, I know he deserves it, but whip me…
I wonder, what are some of the things you rejoice in? Your favorite team winning that game. That precious grandbaby being born. Tagging that big trophy buck. Seeing your favorite person win on that TV show you love to watch. Oh, and I bet you rejoice on payday. But you know what typically doesn’t make…
Waiting is incredibly difficult for us, isn’t it? A poet once wrote: Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried; Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied. I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate . . . And the Master so gently said, “Wait.” “Wait? you say wait?” my indignant reply. “Lord, I need answers, I…
It is deep-seated in and natural for the fallen human heart to think, if I just do these righteous things, I will be righteous before God. Do you know folks that think like that? Maybe that person you know is you. For the Jews we read about in the Bible, one of the most righteous…
Who are the spiritual giants in your life? Who are the ones who epitomize goodness and godliness in your eyes? Maybe a parent or grandparent, a friend or your spouse. Maybe some Christian celebrity that you have been blessed by and really look up to. Well, if you were to ask a Jew back in…
When it comes to my sin and your sin, God is in a bit of a quandary. We are without a doubt sinners, and our sin rightly deserves the wrath of God in hell forever. And because God is holy and just judge, that sin cannot go unpunished. If God just overlooked our sins, He…
When it comes to ethics, which is the topic of what is right and wrong, people sometimes argue that the ends justify the means. Have you heard people say that? In other words, it doesn’t really matter how you accomplish something as long as you accomplish something good. From this viewpoint, the means are not…
Apostle Paul has a line at the beginning of Romans 3 that I absolutely love. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he exclaims, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” That’s a very Paul way of saying, God can be trusted. What He says is true. What He has promised, He’ll make…