Colossians 3:1-17

Covetousness is the excessive desire for wealth or possessions. It is a mania that grips people, causing them to grasp for more and more. It is a fever that drives them to crave things they don't actually need.

We see covetousness in the business man who is never satisfied. He says he will stop when he has accumulated a certain amount, but when that time comes, he is greedy for more.

We see it in the housewife whose life is one unending shopping spree. She squirrels away tons of...

There is a tendency for us Christians to spend a great deal of our time looking for new spiritual experiences that will somehow guarantee permanent victory or freedom from the ups and downs of daily living. We rush around to conventions, conferences, seminars and workshops in search of the elusive magic formula that will smooth out the rough places of life. Glossy brochures assure us that Dr. So-and-So will share a great new breakthrough that will make us radioactive with the Spirit. Or some...

"…them also that love his appearing." For many years I thought that this expression referred to those believers who had kindly, sentimental feelings about the coming of the Lord. They would be rewarded with a crown of righteousness because their hearts glowed warm when they thought about the Rapture.

But surely it means more than this. To love His appearance means to live in the light of His coming, to behave as if He were coming today.

Thus, to love His appearing means to live...

A thankful heart adds sparkle to all of life. At the close of a dinner, one of the children said, "That was a good meal, Mother." That remark created a new sense of warmth in an already happy house.

Too often we fail to express our thanks. The Lord Jesus healed ten lepers, but only one returned to give thanks, and that one was a Samaritan (Lu. 17:17). Two lessons emerge. Gratitude is rare in a world of fallen men. And when it does appear, it often comes from the least-expected...

" In thy favor is life." When Adam sinned, he lost the favor of God, and thus he died. This is the worst of all deaths; for all other deaths are just the expression of God's disfavor. Ask one of the lost in hell when he died, and he will rightly tell you that it was when he lost the divine favor. When a man comes to Christ, he finds what Adam lost and what Adam doubtless regained, - the favor of God, life in the highest sense; for all the other things called life are but the expressions of...

The story of David and Goliath is one with which every reader of the Bible is familiar. It is full of interest. It reveals much of David's character, and throws light on the training of the boy in his shepherd life. It is suggestive also for all of us, for we all have giants to fight, and we may learn from David, how to meet them and conquer...

Colossians 3:1-15

Paul said to The Colossians what to many must have seemed surprising: "If then you were raised together with Christ." How could these Colossian Christians have been raised with Christ? Of course, it was a spiritual rising. The people really had been spiritually dead, and they were now living a new spiritual life. Everyone who truly...