As followers of Jesus Christ, our speech (our conversation) ought to be encouraging and uplifting. Some people we are around may talk in unwholesome ways. But there is no place for profanity, ridicule, gossip, destructive criticism, complaining, or any other...
This Week at Hope
A Pillar and Buttress of the Truth
Mary Lefkowitz, a professor emerita of classical studies at Wellesley College, wrote in a New York Times Book Review several years ago: “The notion that there are many truths might seem well suited to a diverse society. But when everyone is free to define truth as he...
Everything is God’s
We read in Job 1:21, “And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Everything in our lives is God’s, and God can do whatever He wants with us or them. The...
Don’t Be Confused
Satan relentlessly promotes confusion about the Gospel! The Apostle Paul warned his young friend Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:13, “evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” He goes on to exhort Timothy in vv. 14-15, “But as for...
Do You Want to be Healed?
Have you ever been on the sidelines? When I was in little league, I was very often on the sidelines! I had to wait and wait and wait for a chance to get in the game. I was what you may have called a bench warmer. Do you know what it is like to be on the sidelines...
The Better Way of Loving
Do you remember who taught you how to tie your shoes? Was it your mother or father, a sibling, or a friend? A man by the name of Bob never learned to tie his shoes. So, who taught you how to love people? The sad thing is, in most families, no one ever sat us down...
Heaven: A Place God Calls Good
We read in Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Some of the New Testament’s neatest words are “NO MORE!” ...
Faithful Prayer
A pastor was asked to call on a woman in a psychiatric hospital and pray for her. After his visit, he thought how good it would be for somebody to go there regularly and pray for the residents. That “somebody” turned out to be him. He had to be admitted to the...
Oriented Toward Jesus
We read in Acts 4:13, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” What a wonderful compliment for people to recognize that we are...
Filled with the Holy Spirit
In the final chapters of all four gospels, the Apostle Peter denies Jesus not once but THREE times! But in Acts, Peter is like a new man. After being put in custody in Acts 4 for healing a crippled man, he could have been fearful. He could have said only what he...