Black Friday stirs up greedy, materialistic, covetous attitudes, characteristic of modern secularism. Materialism is based upon the premise that only matter exists, excluding anything connected with spiritual. Consequently, seeking …
"The Lord God has sworn by His holiness . . . " (Amos 4:2). Although not in the habit of swearing oaths—His Word is sufficient—God sometimes does so to focus on the seriousness of a pronouncement. As the writer of Hebrews says, "For when …
We serve a God who is positive, working toward a glorious future for Himself and the multitudes of sons and daughters He is preparing for that wonderful world tomorrow. He has made it possible through His Spirit for us to be optimistic …

(4) Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.
Regarding the word spoils, the Expositor's Commentary says that it literally means "the top of the heap," and is used of the choicest spoils of war. From these spoils, then, Abraham gave one-tenth - the very best - to Melchizedek. …
Many of us have been members of the church of God for several decades. Most of the time, we feel we are doing fairly well spiritually. Still, occasionally we remember sins we committed when relatively new in the faith, and such memories cause us pain. Our past sins have tormented all of us at some point. We stand self-condemned and vulnerable to the evil ploys of “the accuser of our brethren” to get us to dwell on them (Revelation 12:10). But, as Martin Collins said in his sermon, “Are You Feeling Guilty of Past Sins?,” “We cannot experience the joy of salvation while we are obsessing on …
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