“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23, NIV). It can be difficult at times to faithfully practice the spiritual disciplines. Tasks like reading the Bible and prayer can all too easily…

“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God” (Jonah 2:1, NIV). Jonah was on the run, not from some sort of enemy, but from God. He had been given a divine command to preach a message of repentance to the people of Ninevah, but instead, Jonah boarded…

“ For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Corinthians 1:17, NIV). Many people view the Apostle Paul as one of the greatest preachers of all time. Certainly, Paul was…

“Now the LORD had appointed a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17, NIV). Many of us are familiar with the Old Testament story of Jonah. If you’re like me, you heard it as a child in Sunday School…

Over the past several days, I’ve been writing about scapegoats. These are people or things that, often undeservedly, get the blame in any given situation. In my first blog in this four-part series, I wrote about the Garden of Eden and how Adam blamed both God and Eve for his…

If we’re truly honest, I bet each of us has been saved in one form or another by a scapegoat. What I mean is simply this. Each of us has benefited in some way when another person has taken the blame for something we have done. Sometimes our scapegoating comes…

If you’re a baseball fan, you’ve likely heard the names Bill Buckner and Steve Bartman. Buckner played for the Boston Red Sox in the mid-80’s. Bartman was simply a fan attending a very important game for the Chicago Cubs. So, just what do these two people have in common? If…

President Dwight D. Eisenhower once stated, “The search for a scapegoat is the easiest of all hunting expeditions.” Why is this so? Well, likely it’s the result of thousands of years of practice on the part of human beings. In fact, shifting the blame to another individual in any given…

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely…

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely…