Law enforcement has always been a dangerous occupation. Police officers must pursue and arrest people with passions heated by alcohol, drugs, hate, panic, and violent fury. They sacrifice their own safety to protect our community whenever lives are threatened by fire, flood, storm, or home invasion. Even people who despise the police call 911 at…

In our culture personal freedom seems to be the ultimate value. Americans are immensely proud of the liberty to speak, write, worship, travel, work, and live as they please. It is this freedom that we all celebrate on July 4. While personal liberty is a great thing, attaining absolute freedom is impossible. Any freedom we…

(Devotional message delivered on Sunday night 6/26/16) In his bestseller The Wright Brothers, David McCullough tells the story of two men from Dayton, Ohio, who changed the world. On December 8, 1903, Smithsonian director Samuel Langley made his final attempt to launch a manned flying machine. His Aerodrome plunged straight into the Potomac. Just nine…

The Lord instructed Moses to make and erect a tabernacle, a worship tent that could move with the people as they traveled in the desert. God called Bezalel, a skilled craftsman, to direct its construction. And the funding for the project was to come from voluntary donations. The people of Israel were to give what…

The heart of every compassionate American is touched by the horrific slaughter in Florida. A heavily-armed Muslim fanatic (and supporter of Isis) went into a nightclub in Orlando early Sunday morning, murdering 50 homosexuals and lesbians and wounding 53 others. No doubt, Omar Mateen imagined that death would usher him into a sensual paradise, an…

Handsome young Joseph attracted the romantic interest of Potiphar’s wife. She attempted to seduce him. His godly response to her advances suggests a five-pronged strategy for resisting sexual temptation. Just Say No. Joseph “refused” (Gen. 39:8). My friend Byron was a truck driver. Women of the night often knocked on his cab door and offered…

  The charismatic movement appeals to an emotional and spiritual need. Christians want to feel close to God. They long to hear his voice and receive individual attention. If the Spirit speaks directly to them, their need is met. But the apostle Paul predicts the end of the age of miraculous gifts. In the first…

Originally, our annual Memorial Day was a remembrance of the soldiers who died in the Civil War. After World War I the United States began to honor the dead who had fallen in any American conflict. But Christ’s church has a “memorial day” every Sunday. The Lord’s memorial supper is a sacred meal including cup…

Has a friend ever shared with you the good news that he “got saved last night,” that he trusted Christ and said “the sinner’s prayer”? What did you say? Did you remain silent because you were afraid of giving offense? Below is a reply that you may wish to use or keep for future reference:…

A farmer went into his field to sow. some of his seed fell on hard-packed soil and was devoured by birds. Some seed fell on rocky ground, rooted in the shallow soil, and withered in the hot sun. Some seed fell among thorns and therefore produced nothing. But “other seeds fell into good soil and…