Welcome can be defined as “a word of kind greeting to one whose arrival gives pleasure.” As I consider the definition, it seems to me that part of it can be faked, but part of it can’t. When the Welcoming Spirit Is Absent “A word of kind greeting” can be given with a cold heart […]
Week 29 Character | The Heart of Evangelism
As I traveled through a major city in Ohio en route to a hospital visit, my eyes were drawn to a neglected commercial building located on the west side. The bright yellow structure showed the typical signs of abandonment including boarded up windows and entry doors, a testimony to the economic decline of the inner […]
Week 29 Daily Reading
MONDAY Reading for Today: Luke 10:1-16 1 Thessalonians 3:1-6 Psalm 138 2 Chronicles 1–2 2 Chronicles 1–2 Often our culture uses wisdom and knowledge interchangeably. The two are related but certainly not synonymous. Knowledge refers to the information or skills we learn in life through formal education and personal experience. Wisdom, however, is the ability […]
Week 28 Study | The Widow and the Unjust Judge
A deacon’s meeting had gotten out of sorts. Tempers flared, temperatures rose, and words got ugly. One deacon tried to calm the group by saying, “I think we should just stop and pray.” Another deacon said, “Has it come to that?” Why is prayer often a last resort as opposed to a first concern? Prayer […]
Week 28 Application | In Pursuit of the Justice of God
Atheists must contend with hard questions. If God doesn’t exist, how did our complex universe arise from nothing, and how did morality come from amorality? Without God, on what grounds shall we determine what is right or wrong? If we are not created in God’s image and human beings are nothing more than fortuitously evolved […]