“You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3 ESV) Much has been said recently about the canceling of student loan debt. Many feel that it is unfair for one group of people to pay the debt for another. Yet, I believe there is a more profound underlying factor here: the idolizing of higher […]
Author Archives: kenbarnes
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Aug
Aug
You have made me act like a fool. You ought to be writing commendations for me, for I am not at all inferior to these “super apostles,” even though I am nothing at all. (2 Corinthians 12:11 NLT). There is a type of pride that masquerades as humility. If God has given you a gift, […]
20
Aug
Aug
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. (Proverbs 4:3 NLT) In the Old Testament, the Bible speaks a lot about gatekeepers who guarded the entrances to the city and particularly to the Temple. Today, we need gatekeepers over the entrances to our hearts to keep evil from entering. […]
15
Aug
Aug
Cliff Young I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith; (2 Timothy 4:7 NKJV) We all want to finish the race well, yet some will and some will not. The Apostle Paul lived well, and therefore, he finished well. Cliff Young, a sixty-one-year-old farmer from Australia, entered the […]
05
Aug
Aug
You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. (Colossians 2:20-22 NLT). […]
01
Aug
Aug
Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on their God. (Isaiah 50:10 NIV) Many reading this piece write Christian literature, yet at times you feel as if no […]
29
Jul
Jul
I met Cletus Hull through Pure Joy Journal, a digital magazine for which we both write. Cletus has been in pastoral ministry for the last thirty-five years with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in western Pennsylvania. He served as a campus minister at the California University of PA (now PennWest California) from 1989-1996. Enjoy […]
20
Jul
Jul
Guest Blog by Cletus Hull
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Jul
Jul
Rejoice always, pray continually, (1 5:16-17 Thessalonians NIV) Peter Lord, a retired Floridian Pastor, said on many occasions, “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. The primary way that God does things on this earth is through prayer. I worked with Youth With A Mission for seventeen years. One day in […]
11
Jul
Jul
By Ken Barnes So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (Colossians 2:6-7 NIV) I grew up in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and attended the First Christian Church in this […]