My God and My Neighbor

The number one issue on the minds of Americans for years has been the economy. In other words, money. Part of this concern is understandable because we need money to buy food and clothes and medical care and shelter. But it is easy to take this concern too far and become obsessed with money and things. This is an age-old problem. The love of money has infected the souls of people for thousands of...

People all over the world pray. They pray to different gods about different things. Some pray without really knowing whom they’re praying to. They most often pray when they’re hurting or afraid. Regardless of differences in prayer, it is a universally understood practice. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught a lesson about prayer. It’s a general guide for how we should pray. Christians know tha...

God sees our heart. He knows why we do bad things and even why we do good things. That is why Jesus talks so much about our motive for doing right. Christianity is not just doing the right things. It is doing the right things for the right reason. But why would anyone go to the trouble of doing something good for a wrong reason? Often it is to draw attention, to win praise from others. Jewish lead...

We understand that we should love our family and friends, but love our enemies ? How is that possible? Books have been written about hard sayings of Jesus. If there is one command that has puzzled Bible readers for centuries, this is it. How are we to understand these words? As always, the key is to let the Bible interpret itself. This lesson will uncover principles in the Scriptures that will ena...

The world can be a dangerous place. Christians and non-Christians both agree on this point. But they disagree about how to respond to the problem of violence. Even Christians disagree on this point some believe in self-defense and others do not. The Sermon on the Mount has been somewhat of a battleground on this issue for centuries. Did Jesus teach non-resistance or does he approve of self-defense...

How many people do you know that do what they say they will do? Times haven’t changed. An honest, dependable person was hard to find in Bible times. The even sadder fact was that the very people who were supposed to be teaching people the Bible made the situation worse by their traditions. Jesus confronted this problem in the Sermon on the Mount. The Old Testament taught that if a Jew took an oath...

How many people in America would you say were divorced in the year 1900? One in one thousand. Eighty years later that number had jumped to over 22 women out of every one thousand. This is just one indication that the more people drift from God and the Bible the worse their morals become. But that is just America in recent years. When we go back to Jesus’ day we find that divorce and remarriage was...

We live in a visual age. As with all progress, there is a good and a bad side to the amazing potential of the screens we use every day. But we must remember that there is nothing really new (Ecc. 1:9). Behind the world of images is the same old human nature. In this lesson, we will look at what Jesus said about men looking at women in the wrong way. This topic could not be more timely and needed....

If you ask people to give an example of something really evil, chances are they will mention murder. There is something so horrific about taking the life of an innocent person that virtually any nation on earth has a law against it. The Bible certainly condemns it. But most people would be surprised to learn that hate is a form of spiritual murder. That means that someone who has never been convic...

One of the dividing lines between churches today is how we should look at the Old Testament. Should we keep its laws? Should we study it? Is the Sabbath for us? Jesus lived under the Old Testament law. In this lesson, He shows us how to view it. We should neither observe its rituals nor ignore its moral principles.  The scribes and Pharisees were the popular teachers in Jesus’ day. But they only u...

Episode Description Of all the people in your life, who has had the greatest influence on you? That question is usually easier to answer than the next: Of all the people around you, whom would you say you have influenced the most? Sometimes people tell us the impression we have made, but many times they don’t. That’s where faith comes in. The Bible assures us that our lives for Christ are not spen...

Persecution is on the rise around the globe. North Korea and Muslim countries like Yemen and Saudi Arabia are some of the most dangerous places for believers in Christ. But other “free” nations are becoming less tolerant of Christian beliefs and practices. That includes the United States which used to be called a “Christian nation.”  This episode reminds us that persecution is nothing new. In fact...

It can be an elusive goal or an idealistic dream. Peace is hard to find. Everywhere we turn there is arguing and fighting. Is there any hope in this world of chaos and strife? In this episode, we’ll learn first that there is a good kind of peace and a bad kind of peace. Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers,” but He also said that sometimes making peace is not good. We will learn what Jesus mean...

“He seems sincere.” “She is a genuine person.” It can be rare to find someone who fits that description. This episode is about Jesus’ teaching on being pure in heart. From the beginning of the Christian life we are to strive to keep our hearts pure. This means having the right motivation—doing the right things for the right reason. It also means keeping impurities out of our souls—greed, lust, pri...

Are you hungry in a spiritual sense? We know what it’s like to be hungry for food to nourish our body. Do we feel a craving for spiritual food? Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” We live in a time when people have all they want to eat. They constantly entertain themselves. They are restless and go from one pleasure to the next. Yet th...

LIVING THE SERMON SERIES “The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible.” That is the most important guideline in Bible interpretation, and it is the key to understanding Jesus’ words, “Blessed are the meek.” Many today think Jesus tolerated just about any lifestyle because He was meek, but the Jesus we read about in the New Testament never compromised. To be meek does not mean to be weak. But the...

LIVING THE SERMON SERIES Millions have read it. Christians in all ages have loved it. Even non-Christians have praised its moral teaching. The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most famous and beloved sections of in all of Scripture. It is about how those in the kingdom of heaven should live. Rather than starting with the outside, Jesus literally goes straight to the heart of the matter in the Bea...

I was reading a book written over 400 years ago that talked about “jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.” That mistake is about as older than the saying. We overreact to a bad situation and end up making things worse. There is perhaps no area of life where people have made this tragic mistake more often than in government. There is a story in the Old Testament that illustrates this lesson....

As the election draws near Americans feel anxious. We want to know something we cannot know: the future. Turning to popular social media doesn’t help. It makes it worse. Politicians make promises but give no clear answers. Preachers who try to be prophets are proven wrong every time. But when we read the Bible the situation is clear. We don’t know the future but God does. God doesn’t just foresee...

Nothing is more effective for rulers than the element of surprise. It is very old. In this episode, we’ll see how one ancient army conquered the most powerful city on earth because no one saw them coming. Then we’ll look at two subversive movements that are working endlessly to change America from within. One of these is a militaristic and political ideology that masquerades as a religion under th...

The end of this century of American history was as eventful as its beginning. World War I and the Spanish flu ended as the 1920s began, and 100 years later Covid-19 turned the world upside down. The decade of 2010-2020 proved to be a time of moral decay as same-sex marriage was legalized in 2015 and an American President lectured the public to accept homosexual and transgender perversion. But in t...

“You do not know what a day may bring forth” (Prov. 27:1). The 1990s ended with a soaring stock market and fear of a Y2K meltdown. But no one imagined the changes that the next decade would bring. The 1990s were a “time to gain” and the new millennium began with a “time to lose” (Ecc. 3:6) when the tech bubble burst. The emergency numbers 9/11 took on a whole new meaning when the Pentagon was atta...

From the end of television to the end of the world—this was the talk in the 1990s. We entered this decade in a conflict known as the Gulf War. Many preachers said it was Armageddon. Then we saw one crisis after another—violent riots in Los Angeles in 1992, the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, a school shooting in Columbine, Colorado in 1999, and finally the Y2K scare as the next millennium approache...

Pac Man. VCRs. AIDS. Chernobyl. The 1980s was a time of change and challenges to the home, the church, the country and the world as a whole. But as Christians, we must remember that what makes the news is usually not what makes a difference in the long run. And, what is news to us was already seen by the foreknowledge of God. Two moral issues stand out in this decade: abortion and divorce. Both re...

Classic music, muscle cars, great sports—all these and more defined the special decade known as the 70s. It was a relaxed time of newfound freedom. It was also a turning point in our history as a people. Abortion was legalized. Premarital sex and divorce skyrocketed. Drugs seemed to be everywhere. Television and movie standards changed for the worse. Moral and religious convictions began to fade....