Chastening is evidence of the Father’s love. Satan wants us to believe that the difficulties of life are proof that God does not love us, but just the opposite is true. Sometimes God’s chastening is seen in His rebukes from the Word or through circumstances. At other times He shows...

We belong to one family of God and share the same divine nature. We are living stones in one building, priests serving in one temple. We are citizens of the same heavenly homeland. It is Jesus Christ who is the source and center of this unity. If we center our...

Have you noticed that animals do instinctively what is necessary to keep them alive and safe? Fish do not attend classes to learn how to swim (even though they swim in schools), and birds by nature put out their wings and flap them in order to fly. It is nature...

God is speaking to us today through His Word and His providential workings in the world. We had better listen! If God shook things at Sinai and those who refused to hear were judged, how much more responsible are we today who have experienced the blessings of the New Covenant!...

The normal desires of life were given to us by God and, of themselves, are not sinful. Without these desires, we could not function. Unless we felt hunger and thirst, we would never eat and drink, and we would die. Without fatigue, the body would never rest and would eventually...

We must be patient toward the lost, even though we do not agree with their lifestyles or participate in their sins. After all, unsaved people are blind to spiritual truth and dead to spiritual enjoyment. Our contact with the lost is important to them since we are the bearers of...

Sin in our lives keeps us from serving Christ as we should; this means a loss of reward. Lot is a good example of this truth. Unlike his uncle Abraham, Lot was not walking with the Lord and thus lost his testimony—even with his own family. When the judgment finally...

Imagine imitating the life of Jesus Christ with the poor equipment we have as mere human beings. A man with two broken legs might as well try to play baseball like a big league star. We would give the man an “E for effort,” but he would nevertheless fail in...

Rahab was a harlot, an unlikely person to put faith in the true God of Israel! The other inhabitants of her city were marked for death, but God in His mercy and grace permitted Rahab to live. She knew that Jehovah had delivered Israel from Egypt and that He had...

There are four basic words for love in the Greek language. Eros refers to physical love; it gives us our English word erotic. Eros love does not have to be sinful, but in Paul’s day its main emphasis was sensual. This word is never used in the New Testament. Another...