Disappointment happens when you hoped for an outcome that did not come to pass. Or this outcome failed to meet expectations. In essence, these disappointments are “failed hopes”. We hoped things would turn out a certain way and they didn’t. If it didn’t bring the amount of pleasure you thought it would or things just didn’t turn out the way you wanted then you will be disappointed.
So, there is a lot going on right now. The coronavirus is taking a toll on people and entire countries. China was basically shut down and is just now, months after the outbreak, getting back to work. Italy, Spain, and France have basically shut down due to the spread...
I have finally lived long enough to see this text begin to come to fruition in the lives of people my age. It seems to have taken a while for me to notice, but I have looked around to see calamity after calamity tear the lives of people my age apart. They built their...
To have faith in Christ is more than reciting a prayer. True faith in Christ produces good works. Where there is no true faith, there is a rebellion against God’s Word. The person who really goes through The Narrow Gate (Christ) also walks in The Narrow Way (follows Christ’s commands). Those that claim faith in Christ without following Christ will find, in the end, that they are not really one of Christ’s people.
A few hundred years after God the Son took on human flesh and became man a man named Arius taught, and persuaded most of Christianity that Jesus was not God. A heresy that taught that God the Son was less that God had run rampant throughout the world. Through the...
We are here commanded to enter where most do not enter and walk where most do not walk and at the end of this path is eternal life that most people do not have. Enter this path through Christ, it is difficult, and few go there, but the reward is beyond measure.
You are headed back to class very soon. You will again be amid people that you both love to be around and hate to be around. School crams your dearest friends together with those who treat you the worst. It also has a way of either growing your faith in Christ or...
This passage of Scripture is cited quite often today. And, most of the time it is cited for the wrong reasons. It is a favorite among those who wish to sin without consequences, yet it does serve the believer tremendously when interpreted rightly. The simple idea is...
Sometimes, when discussing a text of Scripture, I find myself having to do a lot of self-examination. I don’t often find myself doing things for the applause of others. It happens at times, and at that point, I have to pause and think about what’s going on. I find...
I was once in a church service listening to a sermon when the pastor mentioned fasting because it was in the text. His comment struck me as completely wrong. He jokingly said, “Not that we do that.” Then he laughed. That is far from the expectation of Jesus. You will...
A few months back we left the Sermon on the Mount after discussing the Lord’s Prayer. This is not part of the prayer, but it is an explanation of part of that model prayer. Matthew Henry points out that there is nothing new in the Lord’s Prayer. Everything in the...
About 50 years ago in Palo Alto, California police cars went around town picking of people for Armed Robbery and Burglary. It was a mass arrest, but it wasn’t a real mass arrest, these were college students who had volunteered for a prison experiment. It was what is...
I notice in myself, especially of late, the bent toward a secular mindset. I have journaled about this a few times over the past few weeks. It is as if God is revealing to me, through His Word, just how shaped I am by the modern world that I currently dwell in....
Sometimes one string can be plucked or one chord be plucked long enough that a person thinks that they know it all. I’ve seen this in a number of different areas. One instance is with music. A person who has played guitar in a rock band and knows a total of ten chords...
I was reading a book to my daughter a few days ago and it led to an interesting discussion. At the end of the book, I asked her this question. Why is it that we will be able to stand before God without fear? Her answer was this. “Because Jesus gave us His clothes.” It...
I remember just as plain as can be the conviction of the Holy Spirit that fell on me one night. I had been a believer for about six years and a leader in my youth ministry and found myself drunk at a party. Over the past year or so I had been behaving in ways that I...
I can remember my time before becoming a believer. I was in Junior High and my Great Grandmother had recently died. I used to spend a lot of time with her. My brother and I would go to her house a lot and play video games with her. She had a Nintendo and Super...
Love is a big topic in the world today. In fact, it is a big part of our identity. People identify themselves by who they love and who loves them, but this is relegated in our society to lust. Our culture is so incredibly shallow that people identify themselves by the...
Knowing our identity is very important. I didn’t have that until much later in life than I should have. I understood being a Christian to be a type of working to please God. Christianity, as I understood it, was about listening to the proper music so that God would be...
As was discussed last week, our society desires to identify itself by so many lesser things, but in Scripture we see something greater. Last week we saw that we are image bearers of God and so have eternal value. This week we will see that we are either in Adam or in...
For the next few months we will be discussing who we are. I believe that there is a lack of understanding as to who people are in our day and age. People think that they need to take a trip or a few years off to “find theirself”. People think so little of their...
