Let me tell you something, in case you hadn’t considered it before: your life makes an eternal difference. I bet you remember encounters with people over the years—good encounters (encouraging, helpful ones) and bad encounters (discouraging, hurtful ones). You still carry those feelings with you, don’t you? Those people, for…

Living for self brings temporary pleasure. Living for Him makes an eternal impact. Which do I choose?

I remember my mom’s final hospitalization. Her body was shutting down, and she knew it. She told me she wanted to go to Jesus, the One she had loved since she was a small child, but she didn’t want to leave Dad and the rest of us. She was torn…

HYMN DAY! “More Love to Thee, O Christ,” by Elizabeth Prentiss, is another hymn that makes a wonderful prayer of commitment. 1 More love to Thee, O Christ, More love to Thee! Hear Thou the prayer I make On bended knee; This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ,…

Authors get a lot of reviews. Some reviews are good; some reviews are not. I’ve been told any review is a “good” review because it means someone’s reading and talking about the book; a negative review might be the very impetus that leads a new reader to take a peek.…

Sometimes things happen and we can’t make sense of them. They seem to be so wrong, so out of His will, so ridiculous or hurtful or unnecessary that the very circumstance sends us reeling. Paul probably felt that way when he was thrown into prison for preaching the Gospel of…

Look what happens when we ask for His wisdom and discernment and then exercise it: We become filled with the fruit of righteousness! We grow more Christ-like every day! And our lives become an orchestra of praise that brings glory to the One who designed us to do good works…

Verses 9-11 are all one long sentence, but I’ve divided it up. This follows our instruction to rely on God’s wisdom and discernment for our love to abound. When we rely on His wisdom rather than the world’s (which is foolish in His eyes!), we can determine the excellent things…

HYMN DAY! This is more contemporary, but I love the words to “He Who Began a Good Work in You” by Jonathan Mark Mohr (and sung by Steve Green—you can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsynL7m_1VE). The chorus has spoken assurance to me many times in my life. He who began…

Verses 9-11 are Paul’s prayer for the believers in Philippi; they are my prayer for myself, my children and grandchildren, and all future generations. The way the world defines “love” and the way God defines it is very different. The world’s love is often for self-gratification; God’s love, on the…