King David is the only person in scripture deemed as “a man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22). I suppose there are a number of reasons why God esteems him as such. But surely one of them is because of how much David loved and cherished the people of God.

“The word of the Lord” appears in the New Testament – 16x’s in 12 verses. The purpose of this study is to help clarify the difference between the phrase, “The word of the Lord” and phrases such as “the word of God” and terms like “the scriptures”.

Obviously Paul in his heart wanted everyone to be free of slavery. If there was some clear route to that freedom made possible by God’s power and intervention, then great! Otherwise trust God and learn to see what He is doing in your suffering and hardships.

Israel was to be a righteous people made up of righteous families. And at the head of each one of those families was to be a righteous, loving, focused, and intentional father, who fathered out of His relationship with God the Father. It is my growing conviction that the breakdown or failure of this brilliant plan of God is at the root of most of our world’s emotional pain, bitterness, rage and resentment.

Knowing some years ago that I was more like the 12 disciples (who often did not see the value of children) than I cared to think, I decided to search the scripture for what God says about their value. The following study came from that search. May the Lord continue to help us all feel about children the way He does!

These promises have been a great encouragement to me over the years to talk less and pray more, though I still need to talk less and pray more. I trust they will be an encouragement to you as well!

Because of my own journey of self-examination, particularly surrounding the decline and death of my father in 2017, and the experiences others have shared with me, I around that time began to study in earnest the scriptural theme of what some call “generational sins”, sometimes referred to in scripture as the “sins of the fathers”.

One of the most glorious ongoing works of our great Savior Jesus Christ is that He is continually cleansing His church from all of our unrighteousness and defilement by His precious blood and by the intimate work of the Holy Spirit.

You see perspective pretty much more than anything else determines whether we thrive or just survive. Perspective determines whether we see the glass half full or almost empty.

One of the reasons reading the Bible regularly and meaningfully is so difficult for so many is because of the great value of doing so. Few things we will ever do have the potential to radically transform our lives like ongoing meditation in the Scriptures.