John MacArthur has said, “According to Scripture, virtually everything that truly qualifies a person for leadership is directly related to character. It’s not about style, status, personal charisma, clout, or worldly measurements of success. Integrity is the main issue that makes the difference between a good leader and a bad one.” Paul knew this, and he addresses some key issues related to minist...  Read More

What’s in a name? Names meant much in the Scriptures, and a person was expected to live up to the name given to him or her. Rehoboam’s name meant “one who enlarges the people,” but we will see the irony in the name from our focal passage today. He divided the people instead because of his lack of wisdom. His folly became the watershed moment in the book of Kings because the unified kingdom of Isra...  Read More

The Ancient Greeks said, “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” Understanding the world and our purpose in it does not come by pouring information into our minds, but by kindling a fire (transforming) in the heart. Paul knew this and he prays that the God of glory would give the Ephesians the Spirit of wisdom in the knowledge and revelation of Him. Paul has the source...  Read More

“No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear,” said Edmund Burke, the 18th century British statesman. His words are in themselves powerful, but they are also frightening when we consider the moral implications of fear. It does not take a psychologist to recognize the superabundance of fear in our culture today. Products are sold by employing a “fear of...  Read More

C. S. Lewis once remarked that he had discovered why the Lord would not utter an answer. It was because, “You are yourself the answer.” Perhaps you wonder, like me, what was it that Abraham knew of God that led him to trust Him to fulfill His promise of an heir in his old age, or that he would become the father of many nations? He possibly knew by experience what the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson would...  Read More

David Wilkerson once said, “Love is not only something you feel, it is something you do.” The Apostle James wrote that we are not only to be hearers of the word but doers also (James 1:22). Our life goal should be to live out daily our devotion to God in the world around us. Hmm. Let me illustrate the point by way of introducing today’s Bible passage. I often teach folks about the “big moral sea” ...  Read More

The "Harvard Computers," as they were called, were a team of brilliant women who observed, charted, and processed astronomical data at the Harvard Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, between 1877 and 1919. Edward Charles Pickering directed this hand-selected team until his death in 1919, and then Annie Jump Cannon became its director. From the beginning, the women were challenged to make sens...  Read More

“I do not recognize Larry Ashlock” was the humorous end result to a brief conversation I recently had with Amazon’s “Alexa,” a virtual assistant artificial intelligence (AI) technology now popular in homes and businesses. My experience indicates only one of many frequent daily interactions we all have with this type of technology.Face ID and image recognition, emails, apps, social media, Google se...  Read More

Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911) once said, “It is wonderful what miracles God works in wills that are utterly surrendered to Him.” The American evangelist, reformer and leader in the Holiness movement perhaps did not conceive of how significant her words were when applied to Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. God would soon work the miracle of salvation through Christ’s surrendered life...  Read More

Accessing many of the most beautiful and meaningful places on earth requires getting into a boat and riding there. I liken Matthew 16-19 to a boat ride on increasingly stormy seas. The ultimate goal is to reach the place of ultimate meaning. We see increased challenges and questionings of Jesus like stormy seas (19:1-12). We also see the consistency with which He communicates “who” will be brought...  Read More

Just nineteen days after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved individuals during the Civil War, a child was born in a small, rugged, logging camp to William and Lerona Sherwin Helms, near Malone, upstate New York, not far from the Canadian and Vermont borders. Remarkably, that tiny son’s life was set upon a trajectory that would help millions of people to be freed f...  Read More

Economics permeates every facet of human existence, and how we use financial resources collectively holds moral implications for governments and businesses, as well as families and individuals. This first sentence undoubtedly creates a mind full of thoughts! I’ll break it down a bit to introduce a fresh challenge to the way we typically think about economic equality and our Christian responsibilit...  Read More