What doors will open for you in 2024? A new job opportunity perhaps? Or maybe the door will open to make that long awaited trip. Perhaps you will have the unexpected chance to scratch off another item on your bucket list. We all have improbable opportunities that present themselves in life. Some of these open doors can change our lives and even permit us to serve God. When Paul was in Troas, he was preparing to go into Asia, but in a vision, he saw a man in Macedonia saying, “…Come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9 NKJV). So, Paul traveled to Macedonia and went to Philippi. Paul later told the Corinthians that in Philippi “a door was opened to me by the Lord” (2 Corinthians 2:12). What door? First, he met Lydia during a prayer meeting down by the river and baptized her, along with all her household. Next, doors were really opened in the prison, which led to the conversion of the Roman jailer and his household (Acts 16). God accomplishes His will by opening the doors of opportunity through which we can walk. We might call it providence, happenstance or just dumb luck. In truth, it is God working in our lives, directing us through the opportunities He presents to us. “Chance,” Anatole France said, “is the pseudonym of God when He did not want to sign.” How will God direct your life this year? What doors will He open for you? Are you ready …

Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime killed an estimated 6,000,000 Jews. Dozens of other stories recount how individuals will commit horrifying crimes (like going into an elementary school and killing dozens of innocent children or walking into your own high school and killing your classmates and teachers). I have often wondered how things would have been different if these individuals had a fear of God. If they knew just a little about what was on the other side of this life, would they have ever contemplated the appalling crimes they committed? I think we know the answer to that question. The rich man in Luke 16 had a very different perspective on things after death, didn’t he? So also does Hitler and every other evildoer who has died. If only they could undo what they did. However, death ends all opportunity. This life is our one and only occasion to make choices and act upon them. God wants us to fear Him. Solomon said that is “the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7 NKJV). If we can start with this perspective of God, the knowledge obtained from that point on will be properly filtered. John tells us that no one is going to escape facing God on Judgment Day (Revelation 20:11-15). Those who had a healthy fear of God and operated out of that fear (because they obeyed God) will have nothing to worry about. Somebody should have said to Hitler while speaking of God: “Be afraid. Be veryafraid!” This kind of fear is a …

Paul’s letter to the Romans has much to say about faith. The underlying Greek noun (pistis) and verb (pisteúō) are found throughout the book for a combined total of sixty-one times. Comprising nearly two thirds of these occurrences, the noun-form first emerges in Romans 1:5, and its final usage is in Romans 16:26, serving as bookends for the entire document. The bracketing texts read, in view of the apostolic mission: “Through whom we received grace and apostleship, unto obedience of faith among all the nationsfor his name’s sake” (1:5); “but now having been made manifest through the prophetic Scriptures and according to the commandment of the eternal God unto obedience of faith made known unto all the nations” (16:26).* In the letter’s opening-thanksgiving, Paul wrote, “First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all because your faith is being proclaimed in all the world” (1:8). Near the close of the letter, he observed, “For your obedience has reached (the attention) of all, therefore I rejoice over you” (16:19a). Half of Paul’s use of the noun “obedience” and verbal “obey” are found in Romans.** From beginning to end, faith clearly does not stand alone apart from obedience. Whenever Paul spoke of faith (e.g., 1:16-17; 3:22), it was not void of obedience. Whenever he spoke of obedience (e.g., 2:6; 6:17), it was not void of faith. The faith that appropriates justification, as explained in Romans, is always an obedient faith. Conclusion If we begin our examination of Romans in chapters 3-5 or 10, we will miss what has been …

God purposely created every human being with the need for relationships. We need personal contact with others for us to have whole and healthy lives. This contact isn’t just about life in the flesh – for our physical well-being – but contact is necessary for our emotional well-being as well. Personal contact is vital spiritually, too. If we ever hope to enjoy eternal life, we will attain it through encouragement, help, strength and prompts to persevere. However, what about us? The path of personal interaction isn’t a one-way street but one that travels to and from us. One place we find encouragement that helps us overcome temptation to sin – to be our best and to develop our talents and abilities in Christ – comes from the examples we find in Scripture. Those lives recorded in the Bible were real people facing challenges, in their day and time, to live for God. How many people in Scripture commended themselves to us as positive examples of godliness – people who lived by faith and whose lives encourage us to live by faith (James 5:10)? Even those in Scripture, who strayed from God – whose lives stand opposed to all that is right and good – serve as examples of where sin and wrong choices can lead (2 Peter 2:6). Not just from Scripture, but those brothers and sisters in Christ with whom we interact today can help us to keep fighting the good fight of faith, or they can lead us …

What is good preaching? Should it be the goal of the preacher to build numbers by entertainment? Should one’s success in preaching be measured by the numbers on the board at each service, or is there a different standard that we must use? Can one serve as an evangelist for a small congregation and still be called a good preacher? There are some groups in our culture that should not be consulted to determine what good preaching is. Our society does not define what good preaching is. The church does not define what good preaching is. Simply stated, the Bible determines what is good preaching. What does the Bible state about its proclamation to members of the body and to the lost? Biblical preaching reveals God’s power to save lost humankind. Paul understood that the proclamation of the Gospel contained within it the ability to save lost human beings. Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (NKJV). The good news will propel the lost to Jesus if they respond to it on divine terms. Biblical preaching reveals the Truth to people – even when it is not popular. The apostle Paul was not popular with some of the brethren in the Roman province of Galatia, because he stood against teachers who wanted to combine elements of the Old Testament Law with the Law of …

Some of the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen are of rainbows. God’s colorful covenant symbol draws immediate and lasting attention. The rainbow clearly demonstrates there is a God in Heaven. God came to Noah and told him to build an ark. Noah did everything God commanded him to do (Genesis 6:13, 22). Noah offered a sacrifice when he left the ark, and God gave the rainbow as a sign of His covenant with man that He would never again destroy the world by a great flood (Genesis 9:12). The rainbow in the heavens declares the glory of God (Psalm 19:1). The rainbow reminds us God will punish sinners. Man’s continual wickedness led to the flood. Men may make fun of God, His existence and His Son’s promised return, but the flood stands as evidence that He will punish sinners. Paul reassured the suffering saints at Thessalonica that the Almighty would punish those who do not obey or keep on obeying Him (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, as was plainly seen when God placed the rainbow in the heavens. He lived uprightly in the midst of terrible sinfulness (Genesis 6:8-9). He declared God’s will to those sinners for one hundred years, but only his family was saved (2 Peter 2:5). His salvation by water was a foreshadow of man’s salvation through the waters of baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21). The rainbow emphatically declares God keeps his promises. No flood has destroyed all flesh for the several millennia …

It is true that Easter was originally a pagan holiday. It was named after Eastra, the Goddess of Spring. Sacrifices were offered each spring in this false goddess’ honor. It just so happened that about the same time Eastra was being honored, the Jews celebrated Passover. This celebration commemorated God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. Jesus was celebrated Passover the night He instituted the Lord’s Supper. It is a memorial of Christ’s death on the cross for our sins. The Lord’s Supper also helps us to remember His resurrection from the dead! [Though primarily about the sacrifice of Christ – His body and His blood – knowledge of our Lord’s resurrection acknowledges the victory over death and sin brought about by the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus Christ. ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor] Jesus came up from the grave the Sunday following Passover. We celebrate the sacrifice of our Lord every week. “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread…” (Acts 20:7 NKJV). When Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire under Augustine in the 4th Century A.D., the false goddess Eastra was not being worshipped as fervently. Instead, however, the Easter holiday was quite appealing; therefore, Eastra observances were slowly changed to a so-called Christian celebration. In fact, in Acts 12:4 the holiday “Easter” appears in the King James Version. All other standard translations properly translate the Greek word as “Passover.” The mistranslation in the King James Version of the Bible shows how …

If you ask the average Christian, “Do you believe in Heaven and in Hell?” they would most likely answer, “Why of course I believe in Heaven and in Hell!” However, to say one believes in these places is one thing and to live in such a manner so as to prove that one believes is another. I heard an illustration used in a sermon on one occasion concerning a preacher and his infidel friend who met on the street and began talking. This illustration had a profound effect upon my thinking and opened my mind to the possibility that many today are saying they believe in Heaven and in Hell when, in reality, they do not. A preacher and his infidel friend met on the street and recognized each other from college days. They had been good friends during those years in school but had not seen each other since leaving school. They went into a coffee shop, ordered coffee and began to reminisce and renew their friendship. They talked together bout almost everything they had experienced in the past and finally were about to part company. The infidel said to the preacher, “You don’t really believe in Heaven or in Hell, do you?” The preacher was taken aback at the suggestion of such a thought. “Of course, I believe in Heaven and Hell!” replied the preacher. His friend said, “Then, I must call you a liar because if you really believed in those two places you would have talked …