“People who want to live a full life and enjoy good days must keep their tongues from saying evil things, and the lips from speaking deceitful things.” (1 Peter 3:10) When I was a child, my dad hired a housekeeper who would pay me to cuss her out. Can you believe it? It just tickled her to death to hear a child “cuss like a sailor”. Well, I continued to “cuss like a sailor”, all the way to adulthood. Why it became such a natural part of my […]

“…We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God…” (Acts 14:22) I received a letter recently from a reader in Illinois that troubled me. Eighteen years ago, within just a few days of her own salvation, she ran over and killed a two-year-old boy while she was backing out of her driveway. She lamented that she could not find any parallel in the Bible to comfort her. “Nowhere could I find how to live with myself, or face the parents of that little boy who […]

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) A few Saturdays ago, I attended a breakfast at my church. I really wanted to sleep-in that morning, but something told me to get up and go. It never registered with me that it was the Spirit that was telling me to get out of bed, but I realized afterwards that God had something to say […]

“The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21) I once knew a Christian who became so convicted about what his family was watching on television that he put it out in the street. When I asked him why, he told me […]