“It’s hard to be humble when you are as great as I am.” So said Cassius Clay, Nebuchadnezzar, Adolf Hitler, Ozymandias, the Pharisee in Luke 18, Pharaoh, and a host of others. How close is this to saying, “It’s hard to be humble when you are as great as I AM”? “God said to…
Exposure is the experience of or contact with something. It could be a physical element or a social association. It is usually not a friendly term. Exposure is often used to articulate something bad or excessive such as radiation exposure, over or under-exposure, or even indecent exposure (something lewd, immodest, or criminal). But we want…
Have you ever completed a task, reached a goal, or built something you looked back upon with some satisfaction? Not a feeling of pride or lifting yourself up but just a feeling of satisfaction. Maybe it’s part of your home that you renovated or improved. It could be an object that you built or sewed….
God’s word endorses mercy, as Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). The prophet Hosea wrote that God desires “mercy, and not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6), which Jesus echoed (Matthew 12:7). The Lord wants mercy more than rituals performed by worshipers. James warns us that “judgment is without mercy to…
Everybody likes to be encouraged. The feelings that come from being encouraged can often last a lifetime. It is not uncommon for people who have lived a good long life to happily remember back to an encourager that they knew when they were a child. Encouragement makes an impact. It is also looked on very…
And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you” (Luke 17:5-6). The mustard seed was the smallest seed…
I am writing this article at the beginning of 2023, a time when we make resolutions to improve the quality of our lives. Many of these resolutions have to do with our physical well-being – e.g., diet, exercise, and plastic surgery. But what about our SPIRITUAL well-being? Do we give much thought to that? The…
Editor’s Note: Part one of this article can be found in the March 2023 edition of The Gospel Message. Jeremiah’s godly service was in stark contrast to Balaam’s. Jeremiah is known as “the weeping prophet” not only because of his own problems (which were real and great) but also: Because of the wickedness of his…
What is it to be a man? When my mother raised me, she said, “Stand up and act like a man.” Where did she get that? Let’s take a brief account of the book of Job. Whether or not she spoke from her own recollection of Job or whether it filtered to her through common…
“What’s love got to do with it?” This is the question Tina Turner belts out in her distinctive raspy voice as she sings the title to the song written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, which started being played on the radio in 1984. The “it” the song refers to speaks strictly of gratifying physical…