November 4, 2025
Ending Your Search … For Significance (Psalm 8)
Your search for significance will never be completely realized here on earth unless it is realized in Jesus Christ. You can never earn what God wants to give you.
November 4, 2025
Your search for significance will never be completely realized here on earth unless it is realized in Jesus Christ. You can never earn what God wants to give you.
November 4, 2025
This is the fifth in a series of weekly articles based on Christ’s letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. This week’s church is Sardis.
December 27, 2021
Recognizing that God’s love prompted him to send Jesus to the world to save us from our sins, how does God’s love and mercy work alongside his justice and wrath?
We continue our monthly series of excerpts from Christian Standard, circa 1909. The magazine devoted one issue each month that year to articles of particular interest to our movement. Today we feature a sermon by Barton W. Stone, who allied with Alexander Campbell to form the Restoration Movement (aka, the Stone-Campbell Movement). No date is attached to this sermon, which we will prune some, as it is quite long. Here’s Barton W. Stone (1772–1844): _ _ _ God’s Love for a Lost World A Sermon by Barton W. Stone (Published April 10, 1909; p. 6) The love of God is
August 7, 2018
By Joe Harvey Some people are collectors, some are not. Some folks consider themselves too practical to spend time building a collection of coins, cards, stamps, or other treasures. If they don’t have a practical use for something, they sell it, donate it, or throw it away. Noncollectors just don’t understand the remarkable prices people pay for collectibles—like baseball cards. A Babe Ruth card from 1914 is reportedly worth $517,000. Another baseball card, featuring Hall of Famer Honus Wagner, is worth $2.8 million. People say collectibles can be valuable if they are rare, in demand, authentic, and in mint condition.
February 6, 2018
By Ronald G. Davis Kate Greenaway was a noted 19th-century English illustrator, especially of children’s books. Though you might not recognize her carefully detailed botanical studies, you would probably recognize her images of happy Victorian children in sunbonnets and pinafores or knickers. In fact, Greenaway’s name is attached to the British literature award presented annually for most distinguished children’s book illustration. In a letter to her friend John Ruskin, recognized art critic and writer, she wrote: I go on liking things more and more, seeing them more and more beautiful. Don’t you think it is a great possession to be
August 1, 2016
Dr. Mark Scott wrote this treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson. Scott teaches preaching and New Testament at Ozark Christian College, Joplin, Missouri. This lesson treatment is published in the July 31 issue of The Lookout magazine, and is also available online at www.lookoutmag.com. ______ By Mark Scott We have a grandson who can be hyper. Guess what? God is hyper, and so are we. Twice in our text the word for “hyper” appears (as a preposition in verse 31 and as a prefix to a verb in verse 37). God is hyper for (or on behalf of) us, and we are hyper conquerors
July 18, 2016
Dr. Mark Scott wrote this treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson. Scott teaches preaching and New Testament at Ozark Christian College, Joplin, Missouri. This lesson treatment is published in the July 17 issue of The Lookout magazine, and is also available online at www.lookoutmag.com. ______ By Mark Scott We taught a Sunday school class called H.O.P.E.””Hitched Or Patiently Engaged. Some maintain unwavering hope for a spouse. Families in surgical waiting rooms feel relief when the doctor says, “We think we got it all.” Some maintain unwavering hope for the health of a loved one. Why are we this way? Because we are creatures
July 14, 2016
By Pat Magness The before and after photographs probably wouldn”t look that different. Both pictures would show a handsome, tall, athletic young man with a big smile. Unlike the transformation depicted in before and after pictures for a weight loss promo or exercise video, this transformation was not in looks, but in attitudes and actions. When I knew him “before,” he was self-absorbed, careless with the feelings of others. Some might have called him arrogant, and while he was never lazy, he often looked for the easy way. Perhaps most disturbing, he treated his sweetheart of a girlfriend with a
December 30, 2015
By Becky Ahlberg Wednesday, December 30 Read 1 Corinthians 13 through the lens of Christmas. Verses 1-3 can sum up much of our problem with the whole Christmas season: it is filled with busyness and observances that are often void of “the real meaning of Christmas.” Why? Because they “do not have love.” How many gifts did you give out of obligation? How many parties did you attend because it wouldn”t look good to miss them? I hope you were able to do plenty of things that were filled with love. That is what keeps the season overflowing with love
By Arron Chambers Christian leaders, some of them preachers themselves, tell us about a sermon they can”t forget””and maybe you won”t either. Steve Malone Steve has been in the preaching ministry for 24 years and currently is lead pastor at Maple Grove Christian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. Steve”s Best Sermon: The best sermon I”ve heard on God”s love is by Jud Wilhite, senior pastor at Central Christian Church in Las Vegas, Nevada (www.southeastchristian.org/sermons/pursued-for-relationship). Why Steve likes this sermon: “In this message, Jud makes the story of Hosea come alive, and he does an incredible job of showing how what God
June 22, 2015
Our thoughts and prayers for God”s comfort and peace go out to all those affected by the violence at Charleston”s Emanuel AME Church. May you be covered by God’s love during this tragic time.
April 13, 2015
This treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson is written by Sam E. Stone, former editor of CHRISTIAN STANDARD. It is published in the April 12 issue of The Lookout magazine, and is also available online at www.lookoutmag.com. ______ By Sam E. Stone It is easy to understand why John has often been referred to as “the apostle of love.” That theme runs throughout the letters that he wrote to the first-century church. Today”s text is the third time in this epistle when John described love as the supreme test of the Christian life (1 John 2:7-11; 3:11-18). In 1 John 4 he emphasized
November 24, 2011
By David Empson “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). This has been my favorite verse my entire life. Growing up, I attended the New Hope Christian Church in Columbus, Indiana. Every Christmas, church leaders would give us an orange, an apple, a candy cane, some penny candy in a brown paper sack, and then a gift. Some of these gifts included a Bible dictionary, a Bible atlas, and a pictorial life of Christ. One year I got a plaque with Romans 5:8 written on it.
October 17, 2011
This week”s treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson (for October 23) is written by Mandy Smith, associate pastor at University Christian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, and author of Making a Mess and Meeting God: Unruly Ideas and Everyday Experiments for Worship, available at www.standardpub.com/makingamess. ____________ Finding True Love (Song of Solomon 4:1–5:1) By Mandy Smith At first reading, the fourth chapter of Song of Solomon seems a little ridiculous to modern ears. In fact, when my Old Testament professor in college heard I like to draw, he asked me to create a literal depiction of these metaphors, and I ended