Posts from October 2026
From the Director’s Desk
“Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet…” (Isa. 3:16). Goals, priorities, and norms are often reflected in the women who make up the various strata within a given society. In Isaiah’s day, the daughters of Zion were proud, immodest, covetous, seductive, shameless, immoral, and presumptuous. Isaiah’s condemnation was only of those wanton women; instead, he showed how they highlighted…
How to Handle Temptation
Fish don’t bite the hook because they want the hook; they bite because they want what hides the hook. That is temptation. Like the fisherman, Satan doesn’t drop his line without bait, advertising the hook; otherwise, temptation wouldn’t work. Instead, our adversary advertises the bait: pleasure, not consequence; desire, not death. We have a level of discernment which is not matched by the fish. We can, if we choose, identify the hook hidden within the bait. James writes to us,…
How to Grow Spiritually
In a society obsessed with the next miracle pill or quick-fix shot, we have lost the ability to focus and build healthy habits for longer-term, beneficial growth. Our current habits have caused our society to become chronically diseased and sick. People constantly look for the next health kick because they know something is wrong, but they don’t know how to fix it, or they don’t want to work to fix it. Ezra found a community just like this, except they…
How to Pray Deeply
A preacher once said that when a Christian comes to him for counsel, he would always ask them the same two questions, “How often do you read your Bible,” and “How often do you pray?” Typically, the answer to one of those would begin to identify some deficiency of a struggling Christian. Our growth and maturity as a Christian is directly linked to our prayer life. Therefore, if we want to grow and mature, we must make deepening our prayers…
How to Teach Our Children to Love God
Teaching our children to love God is not so much a formulaic process that guarantees their faithfulness, as much as it is a way of life that we ourselves embody. They must see God reflected in our lives, hear His truth taught consistently from our mouths, see us worship Him outside the building, hear us attribute our blessings to Him, and see us turning to Him in prayer. Our children need to see that our faith is not confined to…
How to Avoid Hypocrisy
No one wants to be a hypocrite. The word itself carries a sting of pretension and inconsistency that most of us instinctively reject. Yet Jesus’ extended confrontation with the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23 shows how easily religious people can slide into hypocrisy when their hearts and practices drift from God. How can I avoid hypocrisy? Make sure your service is about Jesus instead of self (Matt. 23:1-12). Jesus begins by telling the crowds to listen to the Pharisees’…
How to Contend Earnestly for the Faith
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). The book of Jude contains only twenty-five verses, yet it delivers one of the strongest warnings in the New Testament concerning false teaching. Jude originally desired to write about “the common salvation,” but circumstances demanded that he…