Our Purpose

There are several Scripture passages that liken God to a potter and us to clay. It’s the Creator’s right to transform and shape His children’s lives as He sees fit, and He is conforming us to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29). In other words, He is helping us not conform to the world or give in to our former lusts (Rom. 12:2; 1 Pet. 1:14). The problem arises when we don’t like the molding process. Then we argue with our Potter and complain about the…

I don’t recall a worship song with the word cunning in it. “Thou Art Cunning,” or “Cunning, Cunning, Cunning.” Do we interpret his actions in our lives as perhaps part of some cunning plan? That delayed answer to prayer—is there something brilliant about the timing? Would it help us to rest if we thought so? When he answers our prayers with “No,” do we see him sparing us some unseen danger? And when it comes to our own &ldquo…

It’s easy as women to belittle what we possess and what we can do. At times, we can undersell and undermine our contributions. Society's labels and painful experiences have subconsciously informed us of how far we can go and has placed limits on us. But it ought not to be. God desires to use women like never before in this time. When God called Moses to lead the children of Israel out of bondage into the promised land, Moses was quick to present all the reasons…

As Mark opens up his account of Jesus’ ministry, he portrays the Savior on a healing spree, driving out demons from a man in the synagogue and healing Peter’s mother-in-law at her home in Capernaum. That same evening, “the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door and Jesus healed many.” Not surprisingly, the next morning the disciples rushed to Jesus and said, “Everyone is looking for you!;…

John Newton was a militant atheist, bully and blasphemer. He was a wild and angry young man. He was press-ganged into the Navy at the age of eighteen where he broke the rules so recklessly that he was publicly flogged for desertion. He was hated and feared by his crewmates and himself became a slave trader. At the age of twenty-three, Newton’s ship encountered a severe storm off the coast of Donegal and almost sank. He called out to God as the ship filled with water…

Have you ever considered that fingerprints are an amazing example of how much God cares for us? Each of us is born with a certain arrangement of arches, loops, and whorls on our hands, and they don’t change as we grow or age. They are also exclusive. Think about that for a moment: Out of roughly eight billion people on earth, no two of us have the same fingerprint. We’ve each been uniquely created by God. What’s more, He has a singular plan for every life .…

When it comes to God’s healing, there is no “one size fits all.” Each of us is uniquely made, and though our circumstances might resemble someone else’s, what works for one person may not work in every case. We have different experiences, desires, obstacles, and emotional wounds. Yet the Lord provides some tools that belong in every Christian’s toolbox. Consider prayer and meditating on Scripture, both of which help you grow in your…

This is one of the fundamental questions that every person asks and seeks answers for, even if they don’t realize that they’re seeking answers for that. You see, our lives have meaning because every single one of us has been made in the image and likeness of God. And because of that, we all have inherent dignity and worth in the eyes of God. Now, sadly, because of sin, we’ve distorted that image in one way or another. Some of us, we recognize that:…

In 2013, British actor David Suchet was filming the final TV episodes as Agatha Christie’s beloved Belgian detective Hercule Poirot—and also starring in a stage play—when he took on “the biggest role in [his] life.” Between those projects he recorded an audio version of the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation—752,702 words—over two hundred hours. Suchet, who became a believer in Jesus after reading the book of Romans in a Bible…