A great ice fishing trip wasn't so great for my 8-year-old son, who had to watch on while everyone caught something but him. Teaching him to be happy for others meant reminding both him and myself of the One who watches over all fishing trips, including one on the sea of Galilee almost 2000 years ago.   Read More

Job somehow knew that he would come through the fires that tested him "as gold" (Job 23:10). As great as Job was, he knew less about God and His eternal plan than even a babe in Christ knows. Does what you know change what you see when you are tested?   Read More

While we may find that time grants us perspective regarding certain challenges, there are certain things in life for which we may never be grateful. God’s will is not for us to give thanks for everything that happens, but to maintain a grateful disposition in and sometimes in spite of what happens. How can we?  Read More

1 Peter can at first appear to be a handbook for survival in the face of trials. Closer examination though reveals frequent allusions to the church being not just an institution of transformed people but an institution that exists to transform people.  Read More

Students today are taught to avoid plagiarism by properly citing the sources that influence their work. New Testament authors used citation to a degree, but sometimes their efforts in doing so leave modern readers with more questions than answers. Let's attempt to answer some of these questions by considering a couple of New Testament examples.   Read More

"Man of sorrows" (Isaiah 53:3): I agree with Isaac Watts who added, "what a name / for the Son of God, who came." But it wasn't just a name; Jesus became a Man of Sorrows by being "acquainted with grief." What can we learn from the One who came not merely to grieve alongside of but to relieve and save the brokenhearted?   Read More

Gospel Meetings were both both successful and common in the yesteryears of the United States. However, there once was a Gospel Meeting that would put even the best attended meeting in the United States to shame. What can we learn from this meeting and the man who preached at it?   Read More

We are to be in the world but not of the world, right? Well, how can we not be "of the world" and still reach those who are? Let's consider the aim of finding common ground while pursuing higher ground.   Read More

If you were challenged to open your Bible to an account of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, would have you have turned to Mark 1? Mark's short account of this event is often overlooked or lumped into the longer accounts. What can be gained from focusing specifically on what he recorded and developing a habit of considering texts in their context first?  Read More

"Christianity is a relationship, not a religion." Have you ever felt like this, or said it? More and more people see religion as the antithesis of faith instead of an avenue for faith. Are they right? Let's see what our Bibles say about "religion."   Read More

Recently, an assembly that had identified as a church of Christ allowed itself to be absorbed into a denominational body. Several alterations have already been made to the assembly's practices, a byproduct of the denomination's leadership being as one of them put it, "not doctrine-driven." But what is doctrine, and is it something that matters to God?   Read More

A children's song says that we have, "Two little eyes to look to God." So why do Moses, Isaiah, and Paul say that, "God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see" (Romans 11:8; cf. Deuteronomy 29:4; Isaiah 29:10)? Let's reflect upon spiritual blindness and the role that God, Satan, and our own choice play in it.   Read More