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Give us today our daily bread

Smart people are interested in prayer. Seventy-six percent of Americans claim that they pray, and 50% report that they pray daily, according to minister Bob Russell in his book When God Answers Prayer. During the COVID epidemic, online searches for “prayer” were at the highest level ever in over 90 countries in the world and the number one request that people make of spiritual leaders is “teach me to pray more effectively.” Apparently, most people pray, but we don’t think we’re good at it. Maybe you’re better than you think! In His Model Prayer, Jesus taught his ...

What it means to say that Jesus is King

By Mark Wilmoth In his book, Follow Me, David Platt points out that while churchgoers are often invited to “make Jesus the Lord and Savior of their life,” that isn’t Scriptural language. No one can “make Jesus Lord.” Jesus is Lord and humanity can only acknowledge that truth. Philippians 2:9-11 (NIV) reads, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the ...

Now is the time, tomorrow may be too late

By Mark Wilmoth In her book, No Ordinary Time, author Doris Kearns Goodwin tells about Franklin Roosevelt’s handling of World War II and its effect on Roosevelt at a personal level. Goodwin notes that Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s marriage changed dramatically after Roosevelt admitted to an affair with Eleanor’s personal secretary, Lucy Mercer, in 1918. After that, the Roosevelts were political partners only; their marriage was dead. Later, as WWII progressed, Roosevelt felt the stress and needed the support of his wife, but in 1942, when Franklin asked Eleanor to come to the ...

Learning to get along with one another

By Mark Wilmoth Do your prayers usually begin with a phrase like “Dear Father in Heaven”? Bible scholar R.C. Sproul wrote in 1996: “A few years ago, a German scholar was doing research in New Testament literature and discovered that in the entire history of Judaism—in all existing books of the Old Testament and all existing books of extra-biblical Jewish writings dating from the beginning of Judaism until the tenth century A.D. in Italy—there is not a single reference of a Jewish person addressing God directly in the first person as “Father.” The Jews might refer to God ...

Love your neighbor as yourself

By Mark Wilmoth Two hundred years ago, Walter Scott was given the responsibility of preaching the gospel on the western frontier, which at that time was…eastern Ohio. Scott wanted a simple way to present God’s plan of salvation and have folks remember it. He came up with the five-finger plan of salvation. Scott would go to a school and ask the students if they knew what to do to be saved, and then he would tell them to hold up a hand. Using the fingers on one hand, Scott explained that to be saved, one must (1) hear the gospel, (2) believe the gospel, (3) repent of one’s sins and ...