The Encouragement Blog

The fairy tales like Cinderella and Snow White all revolve around a damsel in distress being rescued by a handsome prince. These stories are timeless and were our favorites and now are the favorites of our children. Evil surrounds our heroine and she faces death and poverty unless someone comes to her rescue. Events always look dire and awful with

As we unpack what Henry Drummond wrote in his essay on Love entitled; The Greatest Thing in the World, we begin with Patience. Other words that describe Patience are: long-suffering, perseverance, tolerance and persistence. It is probably fair to assume that Patience is the least popular of all the virtues Paul lists in 1 Corinthians 13, the treatise on Love.

Comic actor Dennis Miller said in one famous rant, “Guilt is simply God’s way of letting you know that you are having too good a time.” There is truth in that statement, but God has higher uses for guilt in our lives. God places the feelings of guilt in our moral consciousness for good purposes. All of us have done

Henry Drummond, 1851-1897, lived in Scotland and was known for his clear thinking theology and concise arguments in favor of the Gospel. His best-known essay is called The Greatest Thing in the World. This classic, short essay unpacks 1 Corinthians 13, perhaps the most famous chapter in the entire Bible. This chapter explores and dissects love. Love, is first contrasted

Yes, Jesus did very carefully and gently tell the women caught in adultery to simply “Go, and sin no more.” He did not want her to feel like scum as the crowd wanted but loved her at the same time of telling her to stop sinning. Confessing our shortcomings to an AA or Al-Anon sponsor should not be a humiliating

Sinful behavior is frequently the result of many thoughts and actions. Sin isn’t a one-shot deal! Life-destroying sin is the result of many little sins feeding on one another until Satan has messed us up. Satan messed up some of our marriages with adultery. Maybe our spouses were overweight or no longer as romantic as they once were. Our lustful

Sin is real. Anyone who truly believes that sin does not exist has not been paying attention! In real-life, when we are honest, we look anywhere and see the evidence of sin. We see greed, snarky comments on social media, and mean and angry attitudes. Just think about your language the last time someone cut you off on the freeway!!

God, Jesus—whoever You are—I am frightened. You see, I have never been loved in my life. I cannot remember when I truly felt the warm flannel blanket of a mother’s love around my shoulders. God, I have trouble with any father figure in my life because mine hit me for years and
my mother did nothing to stop it. In my

Does it mean [Christ] no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death?… I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about

God has an individual, specific plan for each one of us. From before we were born, God knew who we were going to be and what His plan was for our lives. He made each of us perfectly different for exactly the role He has in mind for us to play. He also gave us the ability to decide for