Rising above the Average
Who wants to be average? The person who is average is either the sorriest of the best or the best of the sorriest. Too many people are content to be just average. We too readily allow the world to level us down to the same plane. It is a part of the purpose and work of Jesus Christ to help people rise above the average.
Jesus helps people rise above the average in their work.
Little Things
Our world is victimized by bigness. We seem to be conscious only of the monumental. We are impressed with big salaries, big cars, big houses, and big people. Perhaps as never before we need to be reminded that little things mean a lot.
Let it never be forgotten that glamour is not greatness, applause is not fame, noise is not influence, prominence is not eminence. The man of the hour is...
Applied Christianity
I once talked with a man who was convinced that Christianity was a failure. His conclusion was based on the fact that while our cities are full of churches and preachers, our world is getting worse and worse.
If you think about this criticism, you must agree that there is much religion in America that has little effect on the daily lives of people. While the number of church members may...
Strength for Temptation
To live life is to wrestle with temptation. There is no way for us to live our lives free from it. If there were a possibility of that, then Jesus, the Son of God, would have been able to live without temptation. But the Bible says that “he was at all points tempted like as we are” (Hebrews 4:15).
We can do nothing to prevent temptation from coming our way. That is out of our hands. We...
Marriage Is Hard
Someone has said that marriage is like twirling a baton, turning handsprings, or eating with chopsticks—it looks easy until you try it.
Marriage is not as easy as it looks. In marriage two people with different backgrounds, tastes, views, habits, etc. begin to share their lives completely. Conflict is inevitable. After all, no two people will agree on everything. To live together in har...
Beware of Gossip
A prominent minister once said, “I have heard people confess to breaking every one of the Ten Commandments except the ninth: ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.’ Yet this is the one we all break most often.” What irreparable damage has been done to innocent people by thoughtless indulgence in this vice!
Here is some good advice to follow when you are tempted to goss...
Ten Commandments
In 1940 the New York Times conducted a survey of 50,000 youths in New York high schools. Thirty-seven thousand of these declared that they had not the faintest idea what the Ten Commandments were. If that was true in 1940 imagine how many would know nothing of the Ten Commandments today.
The Ten Commandments have had as much impact on the world as anything ever written. They ar...
Preservation
Jesus said “Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men” (Matthew 5:13). He reminded all of his followers for all time that it was their task to save the world from moral and spiritual decay. “Salt is nature’s perpetual foe of decay,” someone has said...