2 Timothy 1:3-10 (NIV) 3 I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your…
Life Guide In a few minutes, we will pass around offering plates, and people will put money in them as a gift to God. Little kids will put in a quarter, and grown-ups will put in a check or some cash in an envelope. So if Jesus were in your pew—I mean, he is, but…
Life Guide 14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,[a] each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold…
Life Guide Have you noticed it yet, the elephant in the room? The elephant in the room is one of those things that’s very obviously there, but something we’d like to go as long as possible without being forced to talk about. Today is the day we have to address the elephant in the room. …
Life Guide 13 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of…
Life Guide Deuteronomy 6:1-9 These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I…
Life Guide My Grandmother gave me one of those gifts that keeps on giving. She gave it to me not on Christmas, but one particular New Year’s Eve. Grandpa had died and gone to heaven a few years prior and at age 92, she was now living in an independent senior home. We had made…
GOD MAKES US A FAMILY GROWING IN CHRIST WE WERE STRANGERS It is unsettling to be a stranger. I remember standing in Hangzhou, China, in the middle of a long alleyway packed with thousands of people. My family and I were visiting my sister who lived there, but they were waiting for me at the…
There’s a famous scene from the Academy award winning Best Picture, Braveheart. William Wallace, played by Mel Gibson, strides across the battlefield in front of his rag-tag army of men, martialed for battle. As his fellow Scotsmen are sizing up the enemy across the battlefield, they’re considering their options, the best of which seems to…