the Father's heart

Then Esau ran to him and embraced him, threw his arms

around his neck and kissed him. And they both wept.

Genesis 33:4

When Isaac was forty years old, he married Rebekah. It didn't take them long to realize that Rebekah couldn't have children. So Isaac pleaded with the Lord on behalf of his wife, and God answered. Rebekah soon became pregnant with twins: Jacob and Esau.

If you're like me, you don't know as much about Esau as you...

I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the

Lord. They will be My people, and I will be their

God, for they will return to Me with all their heart. 

Jeremiah 24:7

Lauren stared at the photo on her phone, barely comprehending what she saw. It was a picture of her son, William, lying in a hospital bed, his head wrapped in a bloody bandage. He had been assaulted in what he said was a random robbery, and Lauren wanted to bel...

... because He submitted Himself to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet He bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.

Isaiah 53:12

When Jesus died on the cross, He counted Himself among the rebels...the sinners or as many versions put it, the transgressors. He became guilty while on the cross when He bore our sins. Jesus was not a sinner, but He became sin for us.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us,...

(Photo by Eliott Reyna on Unsplash)

This article was written by Samuel Bodnar, a junior at Indiana University studying journalism and religious studies. He conducted three interviews for a class project:

Isabella McCoy scowled at her church’s dusty, stained glass windows. No more early Sunday mornings. No more midweek Bible studies trapped beneath the church’s leaky and splintered floors. No more judgmental people who know littl...

(Photo by jonathan wilson rosas peña on Unsplash)

...God's kindness leads you towards repentance

Romans 2:4

The following article is written by Russel Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and a Council member of The Gospel Coalition. I wanted to share his insightful words with you.

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(Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash)

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name

under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

Acts 4:12

I love the apostle Paul. He tells it like it is! In his letter to the Galatians, he is defending his apostleship and recounts a time when he had to call out Peter for his hypocrisy. Since this story is not recorded in Acts, we don't know for sure when it happened, but it prob...

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Now all of us can come to the Father through the same

Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.

Ephesians 2:18 (NLT)

I am using the Cold-Case Christianity podcast, It's Narrow-Minded to Think Jesus is the Only Way to God, to write this post. Cold-case Christianity teaches Christians how to respond to skeptics and atheists. Suppose you are talking to a person about Jesus and they say, "...

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For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior...

Isaiah 43:3

For those of us who have children who walked away from the Lord, it can be heart-wrenching. We may blame ourselves or question what we did wrong. We may start out strong, praying and trying to talk to our child about what they were taught growing up. Eventually, many become weary and just accept things the way they...

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For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

Everyone has a worldview; what a person assumes to be true. Your worldview is how you interpret reality. It is a set of fundamental beliefs about life and death, God, the world, people, history, knowledge, and faith. Your worldview will determine how you...

(Photo by Jessica F on Unsplash)

When he came to his senses...

Luke 15:17

In my book, The Father's Heart for Prodigals, I write a prayer challenge entitled In the Silence. Here is what it says:

Have you ever thought about how or what made the prodigal son finally come to his senses? We know his circumstances changed. Once he was embracing a lavish lifestyle full of pleasure and wild living, but then his money ran out. There was a...