Theme of the Day: Generosity Produces Gratitude Gratitude is the appreciation and thankfulness we feel when someone does something kind to us or for us. There are two key factors that influence the intensity of gratitude. First, there is the deservedness factor. Say you do a favor for your neighbor, picking up his mail when […]

Theme of the Day: Increased Faith Increases Duty; Increased Duty Increases Delight Look up “duty” in the dictionary. It’s defined as “something that one is expected or required to do.” Look up “duty” in a thesaurus. Some of its synonyms: chore, burden, obligation, work. “Duty” can carry some strong negative connotations. Now, consider this. In […]

Theme of the Day: What Seems To Help In Life Fails In Death; What Seems To Fail In Life Helps In Death Last week we learned the hard truth that money cannot bring true happiness and fulfillment. This week we see that as much as money lets us down in life, its ultimate failure to […]

Theme of the Day: Serve God With Money; You Cannot Serve God And Money There are more than 2300 Bible passages that speak about money. Why? Money is a master Satan frequently tempts us to serve. And that evil foe knows how successful his efforts with money can be. Money provides us with a false […]

Theme of the Day: The Found Are Left; The Lost Are Found “He’s lost.” We use that term not only to refer to someone who is bewildered about where they are but also to refer to someone who is in a helpless, hopeless state. Mankind’s natural state is one of complete spiritual helplessness, a profound […]

Theme of the Day: Put Down What You Love; Pick Up What You Hate It is an unavoidable hard truth. Our relationship with Jesus will put us in situations where we must decide where love for him ranks compared to love for other people and things. And Jesus is not content to be one of […]

Theme of the Day: The Humble Will Be Exalted; The Exalted Will Be Humbled Everyone knows that humility is a positive trait and pride is a negative one. So, why bother talking about what we already know? Because in spite of that knowledge, we still helplessly fall into the trap of pride. We cannot help […]

Theme of the Day: The First Will Be Last; The Last Will Be First When it comes to the difficult and uncomfortable topic of who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, it is natural to want to avoid the issue. One way we do that is to direct our attention to theoretical questions. […]

Theme of the Day: We Want Peace But God’s Word Divides We often divide humanity into groupings that are not really significant: this ethnic group versus that one, men versus women, wealthy versus the poor. Yet, every ethnic group is under God’s law. That law convicts both men and women of sin. Because of sin, […]

Theme of the Day: Focused Living Properly Values Heavenly Treasure Last week Jesus warned us against overvaluing earthly wealth. This week Jesus warns against undervaluing heavenly treasure. Last week, Jesus exposed the folly of greed. This week, Jesus exposes the folly of worry, even when faced with the prospect of having a shortage of earthly […]