Bible Lessons

Keep Your Behavior Excellent    In 1 Peter 2:12, the apostle Peter tells us, “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.” In other words, be careful because people are watching. Perhaps you’ve heard the following story… A woman pulls up to a red light behind one other car. She notices the driver of the car in front of her is talking on his  cell phone and appears to be shuffling through some papers on the seat beside him. The light turns green, but the man doesn't notice. The woman waits, but the man doesn't notice the light change. The woman begins pounding on her steering wheel and yelling at the man to move. The man doesn't move. The woman is going ballistic inside her car, ranting and raving at the man, pounding on her steering wheel and dash. The light turns yellow. The woman begins to blow th...

Don't Walk Alone    The following article is from an email that was sent to me once by a dear friend (who, coincidentally, was diagnosed with breast cancer just a short time later)... My cousin, Donnie, lost his beautiful sweet wife to pancreatic cancer earlier this month. Jeannine was a precious person. She touched the lives of many people, family, and friends. Jeannine and I were not as close as we had been in the past due to raising children and busy lives, but there are some things that will always be with me because of her. When our grandmother was in a nursing home in Chatom, Jeannine and I would travel, with her little one, Kimberly, to visit Nanny every Friday. Jeannine began visiting Nanny long before I had the opportunity to travel with her. We would load up her little car with the walker and car-seat and head to Chatom. Jeannine enjoyed this so much. She told me one of the reasons was so that Nanny could enjoy Kimberly as much as she could in her last years on ...

A Godly Man    Psalm 101 is a great outline of what a godly man, a godly husband, and a godly father should be like. David wrote this Psalm as a profession of his desire for personal integrity. Through all of these verses, we can insert a godly man and see what we should strive to be and accept. 1. A godly man will sing of loving kindness and justice. To You, O Lord, a godly man will sing praises. (Verse 1) Men should not be afraid to express the love that they have for God. If we tru ly love God, then He will radiate through us no matter what. 2. A godly man will give heed to the blameless way. A godly man will walk within his house in the integrity of his heart. (Verse 2) Men of God should strive each and every day to walk down the middle of the straight and narrow path that He has set before us. We should be careful about allowing ourselves to sway from side to side. 3. A godly man will set no worthless thing before his eyes. A godly man hates the work of those wh...

Perseverance    Ignace Jan Paderewski, the famous Polish composer-pianist, was once scheduled to perform at a great American concert hall for a high-society extravaganza. In the audience was a mother with her fidgety nine-year-old son. Weary of waiting, the boy slipped away from her side, strangely drawn to the Steinway on the stage. Without much notice from the audience, he sat down at the stool and began playing Chopsticks. The roar of the crowd turned to shouts as hundreds yelled, “Get  that boy away from there!” When Paderewski heard the uproar backstage, he grabbed his coat and rushed over behind the boy. Reaching around him from behind, the master began to improvise a countermelody to Chopsticks. As the two of them played together, Paderewski kept whispering in the boy's ear, “Keep going. Don’t quit, son; don’t stop. You’re doing great. Just keep on going.” That is kind of what Paul wrote to the Philippians. You’ve read and heard about the apostle Paul and t...

A Good Support System    In 1 Peter 1:3, the Bible says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (NAS). Another version puts it this way: “God has given us the privilege of being born again so that we are now members of God’s own family.” The Bible says that when you become a baptized believer in Christ, you become a member of a new and very spe cial family. When you were born physically, you were born into a natural family initiated by a father and a mother. When you were reborn spiritually (or born again, which means getting a new start), you were born into God’s family. You became a part of His family. The Bible says that this new family of God is called the church. As Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 3:15, that family “is the church of the living God, the support and foundation of the truth.” In the Bible, the church is ...

The Importance of Mothers    A young man was standing at the grocery store checkout line when he noticed an elderly woman in front of him. As she unloaded her grocery cart, she kept looking up and staring at him. After a few awkward moments, he asked, “Why do you keep staring at me?” The woman said, “I'm sorry, but it's just that you look exactly like my son who recently died." "I'm so sorry to hear that," the young man replied. "Is there anything I can do for you?" "Yes," she said. “As I leave, if  you would say, 'Goodbye, Mother,' it would make me feel so much better because I need closure." "I’d be glad to do that for you," he answered. As the old woman was leaving, he called out, "Goodbye, Mother!" After unloading his cart, the bill came to $147.50. "How can that be?" he asked the clerk. "I only purchased a few items." “Oh,” the clerk replied, "your mother said that you would...

Stand Up for Jesus    “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.” - 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 “Tell them to stand up for Jesus.” Those were the final words of a twenty-nine-year-old minister, Dudley Tyng, as he spoke from his deathbed to a group of sorrowing friends and fellow ministers. A great citywide revival swept across Philadelphia in 1858. Some called it “the work of God in Philadelphia.” Of the participating ministers, none was more pow erful than the Dudley Tyng, known as a bold and uncompromising preacher. In addition to preaching at his own congregation, Tyng began holding noonday services at the downtown YMCA. Great crowds came to hear this dynamic young preacher. On Tuesday, March 30, 1858, over five thousand men gathered for a mass meeting to hear Tyng preach from Exodus 10:11, which says, “Go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord” (KJV). Over one thousand of those men committed their lives to Christ....