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.
Articles for tag: Psalms
November 4, 2025
Wake Up!
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.
September 1, 2025
Stronger as You Go
Things highly valued in this world (financial security, physical health, pleasure, and entertainment) can’t fill the void. Our souls yearn “for the courts of the Lord” and the living God who meets us there.
December 23, 2024
December 29 | Discovery Questions
These Discovery Questions are for use with this week’s Lookout Bible Lesson, “He Comes With Distinction” (Luke 24:36-53), by Mark Scott.
July 24, 2023
July 30 | Hope in God’s Faithfulness
Jeremiah 33 is about God’s promise to restore his people to their land and their prominence. The alternating pattern of judgment and blessing continues in this chapter. God’s faithfulness is one thing on which his people can consistently count.
November 21, 2022
November 27 | Discovery
What would you need to change in your life to give more glory and praise to God?
October 31, 2022
November 6 | A Heart That Seeks God
The theme of seeking God unites sections of Psalms 63 and 105. In strong parallelism and with beautiful pictures, the psalmists told us where God could be found and what that would mean for the whole world.
October 24, 2022
October 30 | Rooted in Worship
Worship is at the heart of Scripture. Worship was compromised in Eden (Genesis 3:1-19). What we worship is what we become (Hosea 9:10; Romans 1:23). The angel told John to “worship God” (Revelation 22:9). The Old Testament hymnal (the book of Psalms) called God’s people to worship. . . .
October 24, 2022
October 30 | Application (‘Lift Up Your Voice and Sing!)
If a song pulls my stubborn heart closer to the Lord, I don’t care if it’s old or new. If its words are consistent with Scripture and it has a singable tune, I can use it to praise the Lord. . . .
October 24, 2022
October 30 | Discovery
Psalm 92:14 says, “They will still bear fruit in old age.” What fruit do you want to bear more of as time goes on?
October 17, 2022
October 23 | Rooted in Reason
Faith takes us beyond reason, but an informed faith is a faith that reasons. Psalm 119 calls us to love God “with” our minds (i.e., using reason). This psalm is among the most incredible pieces of literature in the Bible. . . .
September 26, 2022
October 2 | Rooted in Righteousness
Psalm 1, in typical Wisdom Literature fashion, contrasts the way of the wicked with the way of the righteous. . . . Three contrasts exist in this psalm for those who are rooted in righteousness.
March 14, 2022
March 20 | Application
We can’t live in the past. Our relationship with God shouldn’t rely on a nostalgic preoccupation with the way things used to be. But we shouldn’t forget the past. . . .
May 31, 2021
June 6 | Application
In the journey of life, God knows where you are camped and what your next campsite will be.
August 19, 2020
Professor Seeks to Provide ‘Ministry to Ministers’
By Jim Nieman Jody Owens says senior ministers are feeling “under the gun” because of the stress of leading during the coronavirus pandemic. The ministers are working hard to conduct ministry in a form and fashion for which they were not trained and are not accustomed, says Owens, professor of Bible and pastoral ministries with Johnson University. These ministers are making hard decisions and are dealing with other stressors, and—due to circumstances—they are “not getting the feedback and the positive comments they are used to receiving.” INTENSIVE LEARNING RETREATSOwens gleaned some of this information from ministers and church leaders—about 20
April 7, 2017
“˜Faith Up” to Your Fears
Compiled by Doug Redford Feeling fearful these days? That”s not unusual. Throughout the Bible we find stories of God”s people who were afraid. And again and again, God, one of his angels, or Jesus himself told the frightened follower, “Fear not.” Here we”ve compiled a list of these fear-chasing challenges. You may want to look up some of these verses to see the whole story surrounding them. Or you may choose a couple to keep by your desk or on your mirror or in your pocket. Maybe memorizing one or two of these will remind you that God”s in control,
December 21, 2015
Meditating on Joy: December 21
By Becky Ahlberg Monday, December 21 The opening line of “Joy to the World” is sometimes sung incorrectly as, “The Lord has come.” That is not the way Isaac Watts wrote it. He wrote, “The Lord is come.” Watts was not describing a past event (the birth of Jesus), but rather looking forward to a future event (the return of Jesus). This hymn text was written as a paraphrase of Psalm 98, one of several psalms considered messianic. Watts understood it to be about the reign of the Messiah. And that”s precisely what the song is about. It speaks of
October 8, 2015
The Honest Poet
By Mark S. Krause Is there anyone on earth today like Job, a person who is recognized as “blameless and upright” (Job 2:3)? One who “fears God and shuns evil”? A person of unblemished integrity? As we read daily about persons of influence caught in scandals, sometimes we wonder if there are any persons of integrity left on the earth. The book of Psalms is a rich source of insights for the person concerned about integrity. Although the newest psalm is more than 2,000 years old, the central issues of integrity have not changed. And while we do not readily
August 18, 2015
Just Say Yes!
By Mark A. Taylor Most of us obey most of the laws most of the time. But how often could we say the law delights us? How often is our obedience grudging (tax time is coming), or forced (radar detectors, anyone?), or incomplete? How often do we think about the law, any law, with gratitude and joy? The news today is full of protests against bad law-keeping and unjust treatment of some citizens. But these exceptions underline the value of the law; without it there would be no recourse against those who violate it. Theft is forbidden, murder is punished,
June 26, 2015
From Generation to Generation
By Jon Weatherly How can the older generation pass along its faith to the younger? History””even biblical history””shows this is always a perilous proposition. And yet here we are, all these millennia later, still lifting up his name. A review of the Bible”s record can encourage us that it will be true again long after we have passed. I am a baby boomer, barely. Too young for Woodstock or the Vietnam draft, I watched from the safety of childhood and early adolescence as older boomers turned on, tuned in, and dropped out to create the infamous generation gap. Today, as
