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The Good Confession (October 26)
Confessing Christ goes beyond saying the words “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” Truly believing it, that truth must be confessed in our deeds as well as our words. We can’t have Jesus as our “Savior” without obeying Him as our “Lord.”
Why Saul, the Rabbi, Obeyed the Gospel of Christ (October 25)
Our motivation today needs to like Paul’s. My own prayer is that I obeyed the gospel in order “that I may gain Christ and be found in him . . . becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
What Was Written in the Hebrew Scriptures (October 24)
What Jesus showed His disciples from the Hebrew Scriptures is that (a) the Messiah would suffer, (b) He would rise from the dead, and (c) repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached in His name to all the world, beginning from Jerusalem.
Defined by Our Love for God (October 26)
In assessing our character, all anyone ever needs to know is the answer to this question: how deep is our love for our Creator? When that question has been answered accurately, the very root of our personal being will have been discovered.
The Key to Discernment (October 25)
We must not only desire to know the truth; we must actually intend to obey it. If we’re honestly looking for information that will help us improve our own obedience, then we have God’s assurance that we’ll get the information we need.
The Importance of Discernment (October 24)
We can improve our ability to discern the Lord’s will, and if we’re at all serious about seeking God, then we’ll surely set that as a high priority. Indeed, the only higher priority would be improving our doing of the Lord’s will after we discern it!
After We Have Suffered a While (October 26)
The hardness of our sojourn encourages us to repent of our sins. For most of us, repentance is not a one-time occurrence; it is a process. By a sequence of events, God is teaching us repentance, and the process can’t be rushed.
Faith and Love Give Hope (October 25)
Paul spoke of the Thessalonians’ work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope. When our work is based on our trust in God’s faithfulness and our labor grows out of a love that is pure and strong, our hope will produce an amazing steadfastness.
Sheer Determination (October 24)
Despair doesn’t have to lead to defeat. If we choose, we can stay the course. Indeed, there is no finer courage than that of the soldier who sees no hope of getting off the battlefield alive but fights on because the cause is just.
Economy (October 26)
As Charles Spurgeon pointed out, earning money is not as hard as learning to spend it well. Managing our resources (whether they be many or few) so that the maximum amount of good is done, is one of our principal challenges as mature human beings.
Wishes (October 25)
Our wishes need to be consistent with our principles. It’s a dangerous game we play when we wish (however privately) for the fulfillment of desires that are inconsistent with our deepest convictions. So we should keep a close watch on our wishes.
Longsuffering (October 24)
Without longsuffering, we won’t grow any stronger. Strength comes from dealing with difficulty, and if we don’t hold out while the difficulty is being dealt with, we won’t get the benefit of the hardship. It’s holding out that helps us.
DFBS 344 – Truly trusting God means letting go of other sources of security
Just as Israel was tempted to rely on other help other than what God provided, we may not place our total confidence in Him. We may be tempted to “supplement” our faith in God with a variety of earthly confidences: worldly wealth, wisdom, and power.
DFBS 343 – In Christ, we are growing toward God’s perfect holiness and glory
God expects us to grow to maturity in Christ, and we must decide to cooperate with His plan for our perfection in eternity. Spiritual growth is not optional. If we’re negligent or lazy right now, we can’t depend on grace to get us to heaven.
DFBS 342 – We ought to pursue the things that make for true happiness
In the final analysis, what really are the components of genuine happiness? If we’re serious about answering that question, the account in Genesis 2 of Adam and Eve’s happiness in the Garden of Eden will be of more than passing interest to us.
September 2026
As Labor Day arrives and I prepare for the work that must be done before the end of the year, I am excited about finishing Walking in Christ, the book I’ve been working on for the last several years. We’re coming down the home stretch!
July 2026
I just returned from a trip to Meridian, Mississippi, where I worshiped with the small band of disciples who meet on 7th Street in that city. They asked me to preach, but when I’m with a small group of hearers, what I do is not really “preaching” — it is simply “speaking from the heart.”
May 2026
I have begun a blog on Substack where I will post bits and pieces of the preliminary thinking that will, I pray, someday mature into a book. It’s called “Ecclesiastes Workshop” (https://ecclesiastesworkshop.com). You can subscribe to receive the posts by email or view them on Substack.