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 […]

Theme of the Day: Focused Living Properly Values Earthly Wealth Jesus wants focused followers. However, one of the things that can most easily get in the way of our focus is our earthly possessions. It is no surprise, therefore, that Jesus’ words so frequently focus his followers on wealth. Jesus’ followers don’t reject earthly wealth […]

Theme of the Day: Focused Prayer Seeks What God Wants for Us, Not What We Think We Want from Him In a sense, prayer comes naturally to us. We want so we ask. We hurt so we cry out. We are frustrated so we vent. We are blessed so we give thanks. So we sometimes […]

Theme of the Day: Focused Worship Seeks Service from Jesus More Than Service for Jesus We call worship a “service.” Which raises the question: who is serving whom? In answering that question, it is easy to focus on what we do in worship. “I set aside time in my week to come to church. I […]

Theme of the Day: Focused Love Finds a Neighbor Rather Than Avoiding One We tend to think of distraction and focus as opposites. If someone is focused, they are not easily distracted by random events and encounters. If someone is focused, every decision about how to spend time and resources is calculated. Apart from Christ […]