"Dear friends, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good" (3 John 1:11, NIV). Some years ago, my parents travelled abroad, and each brought back items they believed to be of great value. My father had pu...

"Because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever" (2 John 1:2). We keep time many ways. A clock can tell us the minutes and hours of a day. A calendar offers us a glance at a year. A hist...

"Greet the friends by name" (3 John 1:14). One defining experience of my life was losing a close friend when I was in the seventh grade. One of my friends, a high school sophomore at the time, was hit by a c...

"Remember your Creator in the days of your youth" (Ecc. 12:1, NIV). One of the most difficult aspects of being a teenager is having a limited perspective. In other words, teens have difficulty with seeing a ...

"If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success" (Ecc. 10:10, NIV). When I was a boy, my father frequently sent me out in the summertime to chop down small ...

"A good name is better than fine perfume" (Ecc. 7:1). Some years ago a prominent televangelist and national leader was disgraced by the revelation of many improprieties and weaknesses of character. More re...

"Better a poor but wise youth than an old and foolish king" (Ecc. 4:13, NIV). The Book of Ecclesiastes often has been described as the most honest book in the Bible…a treatise that does not hide from the d...

Quick Backdrop Psalm 107 opens with this exhortation: "Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story." The psalmist goes on to tell four stories of the redeemed, each story recounting a dire spiritual predicam...

Quick Backdrop Most of us know about David killing Goliath in a show of strong faith, Most of us also know about David, during a time of weak resolve, committing scandalous adultery with Bathsheba. Fewer of us...

Holy wow. It can be elusive and hard to define, but you know it when you see it…or feel it…or touch it. It's those wow moments in Scripture that bring pause, when truth reaches past your prot...