“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For he himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’.” (Hebrews 13:5) Several years ago, I wrote a column to encourage all of us to take a few moments to say something encouraging to those who live and work around us. Lord knows we all need it. The column also appeared on my website, www.devotions.com. I received emails from around the world thanking me for my website, and encouraging me to […]

“Just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.” (I Peter 1:15) Several years ago, I was involved in settlement negotiations over some litigation that had been working its way through the courts for a lengthy period of time. I realized while sitting through an afternoon of discussions that the very principles – which originally prompted the lawsuit – had somehow gotten lost among all of those lawyers. While they argued over legal fees, the real issues about which we were supposed […]

“For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14) It sure is great living under grace. But just because we live under grace, that doesn’t mean I can sin and move on with life as if nothing happened. It means that God will accept me in spite of sin in my life. Now that’s forgiveness with a capital “F”! We all know that grace is the unmerited favor of God. But John Piper, a Baptist pastor in Minnesota, […]

“And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son’.” (Luke 15:21) I know that God wrestled in the Bible, but it never hit me that God ran in the Bible, too. Why would an omnipotent, all-powerful God who created the universe ever run? The answer is found in Luke 15. The story, as it is told, chronicles the early adult life of a son, who after receiving his inheritance from his […]