READ: MATTHEW 13:44-45; PHILIPPIANS 3:7-21 The luxury car went first. Then the jeep. Then the convertible was sold too. Neighbors scratched their heads, and whispers started running through the neighborhood. Lawsuits? Debts? Drugs? No one knew. All the designer clothes went next. And the shoes. Instead of high-end heels, she was seen walking around town [...]

READ: ROMANS 8:1-2, 15-18, 26-39; 10:9-13 I shouldn’t have done that, you think to yourself after you’ve sinned. I’m a Christian now—or at least I thought I was. Maybe I’m not really saved after all. This is a common worry among Christians, but take heart. If you’ve put your trust in Jesus to rescue you [...]

READ: MATTHEW 23:11-36; ROMANS 15:7; 2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-21 Jesus Christ had a lot to say about hypocrisy. In Matthew 23, He confronted a group of religious leaders, repeating the phrase, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” not once, but six times. Jesus called out their self-righteousness. When we think of [...]

READ: EPHESIANS 4:1-16; PHILIPPIANS 1:3-6, 9-11 Imagine for a moment you were caring for a newborn baby, and then, the day after their birth, you just expected them to be able to walk. That would be ridiculous, right? Babies can’t do everything right away when they’re born. They grow up gradually, learning a little at [...]

Let's face it relationships can be hard. Maybe you and your mom had another fight and you both used harsh words that hurt the other person. Maybe your best friend won't talk to you and you don't know why. When relationships are good, life seems to be good, but when relationships go bad, life seems [...]

There was a time when there was no rain in Israel for three years. God did this because King Ahab and Israel had acted wickedly. So God sent the prophet Elijah to say there would be no rain or even dew for a long time. Because of the drought, food was scarce. Life was hard. [...]

As humans, we hate the idea of being trapped. We crave freedom because God created us to be free. Yet, we often feel trapped in our broken lives. We are held back by fear, anxiety, doubt, and regrets. Our minds are imprisoned by our own thoughts. We can't dig our way out of our failures [...]

The last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, can seem brutal, as if God has lost all his patience and love for Israel. Yet this book is very important, as it would be the last direct words the Israelites would hear from God for over four hundred years. The time of Malachi was grim: the [...]

It is surprising how we can be so spiritually blind about certain matters. For a long time, there was an area of my life where I was spiritually blind. For years, I acted contrary to the truth of God's word. As a teenager, I had bias against one particular tribe in my country. I disliked [...]

Sin can be a scary thing. You don't have to read the Bible for very long to come across passages where God condemns sin. Even as Christians, we fall into sin again and again, and this can make us feel isolated from God. Is God's wrath upon us when we have sinned? As our loving [...]