Category: Today’s Truth

In this Christian life, it is extremely critical that we share the Good News of the gospel with the world around us. If we keep it to ourselves, then people will never hear. Romans 10:13-14 says, “for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” The world will not hear the gospel unless we bring it to them. So how can you be a part of the mission work going on in your own community, nation, and other areas of the world?

First, become educated about mission work, whether that is home or in other countries. If your church takes part in missions, then learn about what God is doing so you can be an active part of it. If they are not, then do some research to find out about organizations and ministries taking part in the world. You can also look and see what types of ministries are taking place in your own community. Second, commit to praying for the work. Pray specifically for people that are ministering and for the work that is being done. Last, pray about how you can be an active participant, whether that is serving in or their communities, states, or nations, or organizing prayer partners to pray for the work being done or committing to pray daily for those who are in the mission field.

Now is the time to focus on missions. The gospel is ripe and the harvest is plentiful, so join what God is doing!

Childhood is the most important stage of a person’s life. During that time they are learning right from wrong, good versus evil, and shaping their ideas and beliefs about God and the world. Parents have a significant role to play in this important process. There is a fine line between discipline and abuse of authority. The Bible tells us in Colossians 3:21, “Fathers, do not be so hard on your children that they will give up trying to do what is right.” It sounds like a complete change from other verses we read about discipline in the Bible.

Why would the Bible include this verse? As important as it is for children to obey their parents, it is just as important for parents to build relationships and train their children up in the Lord. When you respect your children and show them what love and grace look like, they will learn more from your actions than your words. Children are always watching to see how you will react, how you treat others, and how you live in general. So if your actions and lifestyle do not match your words, then that is what you teach them.

They must learn grace and forgiveness, and the only way for them to learn that is if they receive it as well. It is still important to have expectations and standards, but when your children don’t meet those, use it as a teaching moment instead of discouraging them. Then you will get to see what the Lord is doing in their lives.

Discipline can be very difficult and seem impossible at times, but it is necessary for raising children to be God-seekers. Proverbs 29:17 says, “Discipline your son, and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul.”

Discipline starts when children are young, but can often be a puzzle for new parents to figure out. They really only have the model that their parents set, whether that is good or bad. Many people seek advice from others or even read parenting books before becoming a parent, but it still doesn’t necessarily prepare you for the difficult, new journey ahead. The best place to seek advice for parenting is from the Bible and godly parents whether that is your own or a godly couple you know. This verse gives some of the best advice you can follow. Don’t shy away from discipline, but be consistent, for if you discipline, you will find peace and joy. This verse is not talking about discipline as we see the world discipline, which can oftentimes either be too harsh or not enough. This is a godly type of discipline as the Father God disciplines His children. This discipline guides, teaches, extends grace and forgiveness, and perseveres.

Discipline is not as much about how you do it, but who you follow. Just as this verse states, it can bring peace and joy when you follow after the Lord and His Word.

Love conquers all, as 1 Peter 4:8 states. When you love others deeply, that love will cover a multitude of sins. So what does this mean in marriage and how do we live as a people who love deeply?

We must love as God loves and not how man loves. God’s Word must be our source for examples of love. 1 John 4 gives us a picture of what love really is. Verse 19 says that we only know how to love because He first loved us. Verse 9 tells us that “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” God loved us so much that He sent His son to die on a cross for our sins; He paid the ultimate sacrifice out of His love for us. This verse calls this great act of love “real love.” Loving as God loves doesn’t necessarily mean laying down our life for someone else, but it does mean that we put others before ourselves just as God did for us. We live with their best interest in mind. Everyday we show them our love for them by the way we speak and act. If we loved our spouses in this way, marriages would be saved and not just survive, but really thrive. Relationships would be healed and restored.

The world will tell you the opposite of what the Bible says about love. We must take our advice from the Bible and Biblical counsel so that we can live as people who love deeply and seek reconciliation and redemption.

“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.” Proverbs 31:10 tells us. It can be difficult to find people of noble character today. Everywhere you look, you see people of dishonorable character: ugly divorces, politicians name calling and tearing down others’ character, people committing crimes against others, debates turning into heated discussions. Turn on the news and you will see examples everyday. Unfortunately, we can see examples in our homes and churches as well. Disagreements turn to disunity, disunity and discord give way to division in the church. So how can we be a people of unity and noble character so our homes and churches are a light to the world?

Why would there be an entire chapter in Proverbs devoted to describing a wife of noble character? Perhaps unity begins in the home between the husband and wife. The wife can sew love and respect in her home just by the way she treats her husband and children. Her attitude can affect how others in the household act as well. While this verse is focusing on the wife only, we can still relate it to marriage, the home, churches, and godly people in general. When husbands and wives love and respect each other, they will become one accord in their marriage. If the church is made up of people who are unified in their marriages and people seeking the Lord, then there will be unity in the church. And if there’s unity in the church, then we can be a unified front and take our light into this dark world!

So seek to become a wife or husband of noble character. Pray and ask your Creator to give you peace and patience with your spouse, so that your marriage will radiate nobility and unity.

Once you understand all of the fruit of the Spirit, you will be able to recognize them in your daily life and how you can better use them to serve the Lord. When you offer yourself as an offering and submit your life to Him, you will see many people affected by your submission, whether that is your spouse, children, family, friends, or coworkers. Romans 11:16 tells us, “And since Abraham and the other patriarchs were holy, their descendants will also be holy—just as the entire batch of dough is holy because the portion given as an offering is holy. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be, too.”

Take peace for example. When you live in peace with others and strive to keep dissention and conflict out of your life, you will see the people around you striving to do the same. Kindness is another good example of living out the fruit of the spirit. If you make kindness to others a part of your daily life by the way that you live and breathe, the words that you say and the actions that you show, your children will remember your kindness and try to live the way that you have shown them. Abraham’s sons followed in his footsteps and lived connected to God because of the faith that Abraham portrayed. The seed is the gospel that grows into a strong tree, and the fruit of the spirit are the branches of the tree that is rooted in Christ.

Romans 12:1 commands Christians to offer themselves as living sacrifices. To be a “living: sacrifice,” as verse one states, you must daily seek the Lord and strive to show the fruit of the Spirit everywhere you go. Stay connected to Christ so that your branches will remain strong.

Solomon searched for happiness everywhere and couldn’t find anything to bring the type of happiness he was looking for. Instead, he found that to everything there is a season and that true joy only comes from the Lord. His conclusion in Ecclesiastes 3:11-12 states, “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.”

True joy comes from the Lord. Many nonbelievers think that Christianity is just a list of rules. But it is much more than that. He planted eternity ine the heart of every believer. Eternity with Him is what gives the believer joy. Since it is in the heart of man, man longs to know his Creator more and more. He has placed that desire within us. Other people would say, “God wants me to be happy.” While there is a little bit of truth in that statement, it is a very shallow, human thought. His desire is for us to desire Him; He longs for us to make Him our joy. If we are seeking Him and His heart, then we will find the happiness we are looking for in Him. Solomon discovered this truth after seeking after meaningless things.

Finding His joy is a process. He plants eternity in our hearts, which means we have His joy from the minute we are saved, but we tend to look in other places for our happiness. So just as Solomon was on a journey to find the real meaning of life and joy, it may take us a while to learn the truth as he did. It may cost us heartaches, mistakes, and consequences. Ultimately though, if we seek after Him instead of meaningless things, we will cause ourselves a lot less heartache and will find true joy!

The seasons come and go. Every year they change. No matter what happens in life, the seasons come right on time. Summer will give way to fall, fall turn to winter, winter will change to spring, and it will all start over again. Ecclesiastes describes the seasons, but not in their physical form, more in the nature of change and the seasons of life. Chapter 3 says that for everything there is a season and a time. The seasons of life change just as the actual seasons change. The difference is that there is usually not the same season from year to year.

We go through things in our life and periods where some seasons are easier, some are more joyful, and some are just plain difficult. There are seasons of sorrow and seasons of rejoicing. Everything has a beginning and an end. Ecclesiastes 3:2 says that there is a time to be born and a time to die, and then it goes on to explain everything that happens in between. This list shows us two important parts of life: the joy and excitement that come with some events and the trouble and heartache that come with others. A baby being born is such a beautiful time in a married couples life, while death brings sorrow and grief. Verse 3b says “a time to tear down and a time to build up.” When something ends, like a relationship or a job, it is time to tear it down. This can cause heartache and longing for what was. However, joy comes with new beginnings and a time to build something up, like a new relationship or career. That is just one example in a list of many others on Ecclesiastes 3.

All of this is part of life. While heartache is hard, it is a necessary season of life that can grow who you are as a person and bring you closer to the Lord. Seasons of joy and love also grow your relationship with the Lord and help you feel thankful and blessed. Take some time to read all of chapter 3 and praise God for the work He is doing in your life!

Ecclesiastes chapter 1 says that there is nothing new under the sun. History merely repeats itself. This is an interesting concept to think about. There is nothing new under the sun. That means that all the hurts and pains that we go through in this world are not new. That means that there is no new sin, there are no new ideas, nothing that man can do is new. There may be new ways of doing things, but the concepts themselves are not new.

We should not be shocked when the world acts as if they are lost because they are. They will do things that show they are lost. Sometimes you hear people say things are way worse than they used to be. If you read the Bible then you know that is not true. Sins can be recycled over and over and over again. Look at Sodom and Gomorrah; they were so bad that God destroyed them. Their sin was so great that God decided they should no longer exist. This is just one example of how things are not necessarily worse today. People are sinful, and so they will act sinful now just as they always have.

Ecclesiastes 1:10 says that “Sometimes people say, ‘Here is something new!’ But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.” Oh how our memories are so short! We think we’ve been alive for a long time and know a lot about what has happened, but our time on earth is but a mist. Since we know that nothing is new under the sun, then we know the consequences for actions, and that should serve as a warning to us now. Just as sin is not new, God’s wisdom is also not new. The Bible has stood the test of time. We can learn from the past, what happened when people went against God, and even the lessons that godly men and women learned when they tried to do things their own way.

If God is for us, who can be against us? What else is there for man to fear? This verse in Romans 8:31 is an encouraging verse because it tells us that there is absolutely nothing in this world that can tear us apart from the love of Christ. Once we become one of his children, we are His and are held in the palm of His hands.

Verse 35 says that nothing can separate us from His love. The devil cannot separate from the love of Christ because the work has already been done. He already won the victory at the cross. However, the enemy will continuously try to entrap us again and again. He will try to steal our joy and make us question God. He will use others to try and accomplish this. He reigns over the darkness and is always working in the lives of those who don’t know him. So when we are hurt by someone who doesn’t know the Lord, we must remember that they are not one of His people, so they will not act like Him. We have become His sons and daughters, so we must act like Him. What a comforting thought that there is nothing that can separate us from His love. He is always with us.

So when others come against us or question our beliefs, we can rest assured that God is for us and will stand with us when we take a stand! Take comfort in knowing that God is with you and that nothing can separate you from His love!