“My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.” – Psalm 131 (NIV) Psalm 131 gives us a wonderful picture of having dependence on God in our Christian walks.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” – John 15:5-8 This passage of Scripture has a tremendous implication for all who follow Jesus Christ. It is simply this: Your works will produce nothing but firewood!

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.” (Matthew 23:15 NIV) There are many great deceptions and problems that we have to deal with in the Christian life: Pride, selfishness, exalting one’s self, justifying sin, and many others heart-attitudes are what comes to our mind initially. But what if I suggested to you that having the heart of a Pharisee is something more dangerous then all these combined.

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other” (Matthew 24:9-10) Our Lord spoke these sobering words to us in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 24 . Something in us does not want to accept the idea that in the end times all nations will hate and persecute Christians.

There is a coming great persecution upon Christianity in the west and other protected pockets in the world. In places where the has been a protected Gospel witness, there will come such a sweeping persecution that even if it were told before of what would happen no one would believe it. You might ask how do you know that this is going to happen?...

Jonathan Merritt seeks a non-partisan faith, but leaving behind the left-right culture clashes is harder than it seems.

It might sound audacious to say that one bookstore devised a strategy to counter the long reach of Amazon. But it’s no more audacious than Amazon’s conviction in 1999 that you could sell books over the Internet.

May 26, 2012. It was supposed to be a momentous occasion---the day I would walk down the aisle in my mother's lace wedding gown, peonies in hand, best friend at my side, family and friends looking on with joy. It was supposed to be the day I started a new chapter, the day my dreams would be fulfilled. Little did I know, God had other plans.

Everyone's busily putting forth what, exactly, you should be reading this summer. A good summer read should be beachy, salty, spicy, not too hard, not too soft, but entirely compelling books that can withstand the glare of sun and the inevitable sleepiness caused by said glare.

How then should we respond to belligerent unbelievers? Well, it’s all too easy to get angry and wound up. Do the opposite instead: relax. This is one of the first things to remember when attempting to love your enemies. Anger and fear—the latter usually causing the former—get in the way of doing the right thing.