In one of the seemingly most paradoxical moments in all of history, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings humbles himself into a position of servant in order to wash the feet of His followers. Jesus takes one of the lowliest jobs on for himself. Even in our time, feet are not considered the most hygenic part of our bodies. Back then it was even worse because their footwear was only sandals, and they walked on dusty roads. This made their feet extremely dirty, hard, and just generally unpleasant. That is why it was such a sign of humility for Jesus to do this for them. Read the rest of this entry »

As Christians, it is important that we find strength in numbers. God created the church to serve a very specific purpose. He knew that we needed one another, and that as a unit we would work better than as individuals. Each of us have different strengths that play off of one another. When one is weak, another is strong. One of the biggest mistakes Christians make is to go off on their own and try to fight spiritual battles all on their own. Read the rest of this entry »

Today is Mother’s Day. It is a day in which everyone takes a special notice of mothers around the country. It is an important event. Mothers need to be recognized and appreciated for all that they do. It is said that families are the building blocks of societies. When the family unit starts to falter, so does the society. One of the primary building blocks of the family is Mom. Her role to the family is critical, and without her, a family struggles. Read the rest of this entry »

Paul finishes his list by saying that love never fails. Now he could mean that love does not disappoint. If we love, our relationships will go well. There is a certain extent to which that is true. If two beings in a relationship love perfectly, their relationship will not fail The Father, Son and Holy Spirit have such a relationship. However, many relationships do fail, not because love fails, but because people lack love in their relationships, those relationships do not meet their full potential. However, there is another meaning to this passage as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Paul leaves the most important, and often times most difficult, aspect of love for the very end of his list. Here he tells them that love bears all things and endures all things. These two ideas encompass almost everything that Paul has mentioned above. That is why it is so important to make sure that we apply them to our own lives. When dealing with others we need to make sure that we bear all things with them. Read the rest of this entry »

At the end, Paul lists four of the most important aspects of love. Here we see that he tells them that they should believe all things. Belief in the Biblical perspective is trust. The second thing that he tells them to do is to hope all things. In the Bible, hope is also viewed differently than it is today. We might say that we hope to find a million dollars, but we do not think it will actually happen. In the New Testament, hope is a sense of expectation of something being realized. The person who hopes fully believes that what is hoped for will come about. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the more difficult aspects of love is having the right attitude toward the actions of other people. We have a responsibility to those around us depending on what they do. For those who walk righteously, we need to encourage them to continue and be pleased with what they have done so far. When we see people engage in unrighteous behavior, it would be unloving for us to let them continue. The right thing to do is to encourage them to change their current behavior so that they can start righteously following God. Read the rest of this entry »

I have three younger sisters. Growing up, my second oldest sister was the easiest to pick on. We had learned that she was a screamer. If we were discreet enough, we could pick on her, and she would start screaming. She would then get in trouble for her screaming outburst and we would giggle. One time she screamed and my Dad called her downstairs to get on to her. She defended herself by saying that one of the other girls had pushed her. Dad asked her, “What does the Bible say we should do to people who wrong us?” Without missing a beat, my sister exclaimed, “STONE HER!” Read the rest of this entry »

In High School, I was asked to go and visit the elementary school and explain to the children that they should not take drugs. While we were there we also got to eat lunch and go to recess with them. I was excited about recess because they had a game called four square, and you try to knock other players out by hitting the ball into their square where they can not return it. As we were playing, the player in the first square was allowed to make up certain rules, and the rules the boys would make put the girls that were playing at an impossible disadvantage. I finally got to serve, and disallowed some of the rules to give the girls a chance. One of the boys mocked me, saying, “If you do that, you are a wimp!” I simply shrugged and said, “Okay.” Immediately they were all in shock. They could not believe that it did not bother me to be thought of as a wimp. Read the rest of this entry »

Many times after a romantic relationship, a person will quickly move into a “rebound” relationship. They date this person to fill the hole left by the previous relationship. Feeling sad and lonely, they want to be around someone, anyone really, who makes them happy. These relationships generally do not last long. Many times, the person who was the rebound feels used. The recovering person was never actually interested in them. They did not care about them. Their only purpose was to satisfy themselves. Once that need was met, the rebound was discarded. Read the rest of this entry »