We all sometimes struggle to find words to express our feelings. That’s why God gave us the Psalms. An Anatomy of All the Parts of the Soul The 16th century reformer, John Calvin, called Psalms “the Anatomy of all the parts of the Soul” and observed that There is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn . . . all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated. Or, as someone else noted, while the rest of the Scripture speaks to us, the Psalms speak for us. The Psalms provide us with a rich vocabulary for speaking to God about our souls. When we long to worship, we have psalms of thanksgivin...

People believe all kinds of things about what happens when we die. One is that people become angels. Another is that we become flowers in God’s garden. But are these things true? Some may genuinely believe these things. Others may just be holding onto a nice idea while dealing with their grief. Let’s dig into the subject about angels. Do we become angels when we die or not? How do we know? Where would anyone get the idea in the first place? Do we become angels when we die? No. We do not become angels when we die. Humans are one kind of God’s creation, and angels are another. To say we become angels is to say we stop being humans. What does the Bible say about mankind and angels? Creation Psalm 8:5 says, “You have made them [human beings] a little lower than the angels and crowned them with...

Let me warn you right up front — my goal is to change the way you think about leadership. I do not aim merely to add one more voice to the conversation about leadership, I want to fundamentally change the way leadership is understood and practiced. For the better part of the last three decades, leadership has been a major cultural preoccupation and a professional obsession. Walk into an airport bookstore and you will find the front tables filled with books promising to make you a better leader. Apparently, people passing through airports have a healthy appetite for books on leadership. Walk into a Christian bookstore, and you will find ample evidence of the same hunger. If you are like me, you have probably read a small library of books on leadership, attended numerous conferences and semi...

  My thrice-great grandmother was a Choctaw Native born in South Mississippi in 1845. Her name was Clementine “Thankful” Page. I’m not sure what her parents called her in the day-to-day but I’ve imagined it would be great if she went by “Thankful.” I can imagine that name echoing through a house in those antebellum years. “Thankful, it’s time for dinner” or maybe, “Thankful, what did you do?” What a wonderful name and a great way to be remembered. For whatever reason, her parents chose to mark her life with a constant reminder of gratitude. Likewise, Christians have been given a new name in Christ and we should be marked by the virtue of thanksgiving. “Thankful” should be our name. Many nations have their own traditional “Day of Thanks.” Here in the United States, our country celebrat...

While we tend to look forward to Thanksgiving because it usually means a four-day holiday, getting together with family, and eating more food than we have all year, it is my sincere desire that it be more meaningful this year. What if Thanksgiving were the one day in which we over-emphasized what should be on our hearts every day of the year: a heart of gratitude in everything? What if our Thanksgiving prayer really thanked God for everything that has happened in the past year? God clearly spelled out His good and perfect will for us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18  when He inspired the Apostle Paul to write: “In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Did you catch that? In everything. In the good times, as well as the bad. In the pleas...

To help stimulate a kind of deeper gratitude, my family has adopted a Thanksgiving tradition we’ve found extremely helpful. Each year after our Thanksgiving meal we gather in our living room and simply recite the blessings of God that have touched our lives. One by one we circle the room, each one of us expressing our gratitude to God for His many physical and spiritual blessings. Allow me to share with you just five blessings that deeply touch me every year and prompt me to thank God. Perhaps it’ll catch and you’ll be able to rekindle your gratitude! You’re Saved and You Know It No work of God’s is more beyond my comprehension yet closer to my heart and more worthy of gratitude than salvation. Before coming to know Christ, each of us lived in a self-imposed p...

As the earliest extra-biblical Christian confessional document, the Apostles’ Creed has stood the test of time as the preeminent testament to creedal orthodoxy.  The creed, attributed to the earliest missionary followers of Jesus, distills the basic outline of what it means to be a Christian into a short summation that belies the depth and richness of what it proclaims. The Apostles’ Creed We believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; (He descended into hell.)1 On the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father; from which he w...

  The alarm clock beeps incessantly. Morning again. Reaching over, he fumbles with it a little before finding the snooze button. A few more minutes won’t hurt. A few more minutes to rest. But he can’t sleep. His mind already swirls with thoughts of the day ahead. So much to do. Little details, big projects, meetings. It’s going to be a busy day. And, when it’s done, what does he have to look forward to? Doing it all over again. Tomorrow will be exactly the same. Hit the snooze button a few times, get out of bed, and face the same job, the same tasks, the same routine. He feels like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, endlessly living the same day over and over again, constantly confronted with the pointlessness of it all. But hey, at least it’s a paycheck. He’s got bills to pay and grocerie...

Have you ever seen Miracle on 34th Street? It’s a Christmas classic. The 1947 novel became a movie the same year, earning the author an Academy Award for the Best Original Story. The film itself was nominated for the top picture. Edmund Gwenn, who played Kris Kringle, won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. But who could ever forget the child actor, Natalie Wood, who won the hearts of viewers as Susan Walker, the little girl whose doubt in the existence of Santa Claus is transformed by her association with Edmund Gwenn’s Kris Kringle. “Miracle on 34th Street stands beside It’s a Wonderful Life as one of the two most enduring of America’s holiday movies,” says Frank Beaver, professor of film and video studies at the University of Michigan. “As ...

In Acts 20:32, the Apostle Paul declared: “And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up.” This Christmas, do something that will refresh and strengthen your soul. These 25 short, daily Bible readings highlight the birth of Jesus and the purpose for His coming. Related Old Testament passages are also featured. Make, share, and follow notes on Twitter using the hashtag #ChristmasBible.  Grow closer to Christ through The Christmas Bible Reading Plan and recapture the reason for the season!       

Most people in the world live without fear of judgment in their lives. Some set goals without considering that there might be a Lord who rules over their planning. Many have private thoughts that run the gamut from altruism to evil without thinking there might be an Omniscient observer of their thought life. Our salvation story, however, as one of the dramatic redemption of believers from slavery to inheritance, ought to distinguish a believer’s disposition toward God from unbelievers in this significant way. A believer’s reflection upon the acts of his own redemption should bring him to a place of being characterized by conscious trembling before the majesty of God. Psalm 114 explains this in heightened figurative language. 1.     The events of the redemption of God’s ...