Author: S&P

Question: How can a church survive amid the rapidly changing world around us? Answer: Do what surviving churches have always done. I can just imagine that anyone reading this will have their eyebrows “high-fiving” at this point. What do you mean do what surviving churches have always done? Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing but expecting different results?&nb...

Just about everyone wants to know how the sixty-six books got chosen to be in the Bible. Why these sixty-six? Why not a few more (or a few less)? Why these books and not others? In Persecution in the Early Church Herbert Workman tells the story of a Christian who was brought before the Roman governor of Sicily during the last great persecution of the church. His crime? Possessing a copy of the Gos...

We are regularly faced with the horror and prevalence of violence against children: ·         Almost half of all sexual abuse victims are children: 15 percent of sexual assault victims are under age twelve, and 29 percent are ages twelve to seventeen. ·         Studies suggest that up to 10 million children in the U.S....

As a book lover, my books are riddled with highlights and underlined sections. I dog-ear my pages. (Yes, I am one of those people!) In one book I read recently, I folded down the bottom corners of pages I wanted to come back to later so I could record my favorite quotes. The problem was, when I got to the end of the book, there were about forty folded down pages! When it comes to the story of...

The desire and the demand to be perfect is in full-effect today. From photo-shopped models who reflect artificial and unattainable “beauty” in advertising, to the superficial but well-manicured lives of neighbors and friends, we are constantly presented with perfection as the ideal. As much as we, in our saner moments, speak against such superficiality we all feel the pressure. We sometimes even p...

Available Plans Help? Here’s How it Works 1. Register or Login, so we can show you a customized Bible reading progress tracking chart. 2. Choose a reading plan. 3. Start your daily Bible reading plan! 4. Record your Bible reading progress. Complete your assigned Bible reading each day. Then click the “Finished Reading” button at the top or bottom of the Bible in a Year reading pa...

Willpower Is Weak If you’re considering making some New Year’s resolutions this year, consider this: like other exercises of raw willpower, most New Year’s resolutions fail miserably. According to research, 80 percent of those who make resolutions on January 1 have given up by Valentine’s Day. Nutrition experts say that two-thirds of dieters regain any weight lost within a year, and more than 70 p...

Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. “Consider your ways!” (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them, and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them. Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and th...

Wise people are not wise because they are prophets who see the future. Wise people are not wise because they can look into men’s hearts and discern their thoughts and motives. Wise people are not wise because they are better at learning from experience. Wise people are not those who’ve been blessed with superior intellect. Wise people are those who treasure the lamp of God’s Word, seeking out and ...

For many in the West, if not most, Christmas will be spent in relative peace.  Time together with family and friends, presents under the tree and a hot dinner typify the day of celebration.  Christmas is a national holiday in the United States, and most people will have a paid day off from work.  You can sleep in if you’d like, assuming that the kids or grandkids don’t run downstair...

Elijah had been used of God to hold back rain from the people for over three years, because of their sins. Obviously, he was not well liked as a preacher. I can imagine the stress he experienced during those years. Something strikes me, however, that seems to further complicate Elijah’s situation. Consider 1 Kings 18:1: “After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “G...

GQ Magazine, which isn’t exactly famous for promoting a God-fearing view of the world or social issues, is enjoying a meteoric boost in publicity these days due to writer Drew Magary’s candid interview of “Duck Dynasty” star, Phil Robertson. In his interview published in GQ’s January 2014 issue, Phil “the Duck Commander” Robertson voiced traditional Christian views of marriage and sexuality with h...