Interestingly, the word “corruption” in this text speaks of rotting garbage. When we allow our flesh to dictate our life and allow sinful aspects to overrun us—mark it down—it is like stinking up a life, and nothing stinks worse than rotting garbage. The garbage dump is definitely not a place where I want to live.

You’ve read the testimony of the Macedonian Christians who gave sacrificially to the Apostle Paul. Paul used it to encourage the Corinthian churches to be faithful in giving, and two millennia later, it motivates us today. Why? The significance lies in their motive. In God’s economy, the motive is as important as the gift. In other words, why we give is as important as that we give.

The theme for 2015 at Liberty Baptist Church is “I Believe God.” I am speaking to our church on different ways we can show others that we believe God—not just believe in God. I recently spoke on the subject of how we can believe God through prayer. I handed out the content of this blog to our church because I wanted them to see what a life of prayer can do. I hope that this will be a blessing to you.

Over the years, I have learned that the term budgeting has different meanings for different people. I recently read a definition that described a budget as, “An orderly system of living beyond our means.”

What spiritual leader hasn’t drawn encouragement from Nehemiah 2:18? But for that encouragement to be more than an emotional boost, we need specific ways to put it into practice.

Several months after we moved to Lancaster, some dear friends of our family made arrangements for us to move out of our tiny apartment into a real house. Our apartment did not have air conditioning (which makes for rough summers in the desert), and the previous occupants had animals that left the carpets soiled beyond repair. Needless to say, I was excited and thankful to have a home. It wasn’t long before I began decorating it room by room.

True biblical Christianity is far different from what we see in most modern churches. When we read the New Testament, we are brought face to face with the fact that every believer is expected to be a participant, not an observer, in world-wide evangelism.

Nearly every pastor or church leader knows the burden of carrying the financial responsibilities of a ministry.

The local church does not get to choose whether or not it will have a ministry of counseling. Churches are made up of people, and people will always be encountering situations that require biblical direction and guidance.

I’ve known for some years that the Sunday evening service in Baptist churches has been on the decline. But I read a recent statistic by researcher Thom Rainer stating that only 5 percent of churches have a Sunday evening service. That number startled me.