What do you have that you did not receive? —1 Corinthians 4:7 While he was away, he left his business in the custody of his servants. On his return, he called for accountability of their stewardship. Two had doubled his assets; one had […]
Well done, good and faithful servant. —Matthew 25:21 Picture this. It’s Judgment Day. Your name is called. You step forward. The Lord looks at you, smiles, and says, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.” You desire approval. We
The one who endures to the end will be saved. —Matthew 24:13 They were beautiful young ladies: sparkling smiles, sunny personalities. Their university dorm room was their evangelistic center, the site of numerous conversions. They kept our baptistry busy. At an event a few years later, I spotted one of them in the
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Love is patient, love is kind. —1 Corinthians 13:4 Patience is a proper but rare response to life’s irritations. It’s a great virtue; also, a great challenge. As Paul was wrapping up his first letter to the Thessalonians, he did so with a staccato burst of admonition: Admonish the idle Encourage
What does the Lord require of you? —Micah 6:8 A rigid clergy combed the Torah and came up with 613 commands—then piled on thousands of additional interpretive rules. Micah reduced it to three: “act justly . . . love mercy . . .
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Comfort each other. —1 Thessalonians 5:11 Job’s friends (?) show us how to respond to someone who’s going through a tough time. And then, they show us how not to. They showed up to comfort Job and sat with him for a long time without saying a word. So far, so good. But then they
Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. —Matthew 24:42 An old fable pictures three apprentice devils reporting to Satan conerning their plans to deceive and destroy humanity. The first said, “I will tell them that there is no God.” Satan said, “That
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The old order of things has passed away. —Revelation 21:4 J.R.R. Tolkien, in his essay On Fairy Stories, explained why people are drawn to fairy tales. Such stories, he said, are usually the opposite of the emotional torture of daily news. Instead
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We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. —2 Chronicles 20:12 King Jehoshaphat was a good man who did good things (2 Chr 17–19). Still, he was not immune to fear. An enemy army, vastly superior to his, was headed his way. He prayed, “We do not know what
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He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. —1 Peter 2:24 As the two outgunned soldiers ran for cover, an exploding grenade caught one in mid-stride, mangling his right leg. His cohort jumped on top of him, shielding him from gunfire with his body. It cost him
