Category Archives: Encouragement

This Year, Punch Up Your Resolution

Posted on January 3, 2026 by salooper57

I walk out of a church service, thinking the preacher took forty-five minutes to say what he could have said in ten. My wife and I get in the car and before we leave the parking lot, she has commented on the “good sermon.” Continue reading →

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Look Four Ways Before Crossing (Hebrews 12:1-3)

Posted on January 1, 2026 by salooper57

Sin clings; it won’t let go. We must be determined to get rid of it, or it will damage us. That damage, as the author of Hebrews points out again and again, takes the form – this is important to understand – of unbelief. Continue reading →

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The Telescoping Reality of Christmas

Posted on December 27, 2025 by salooper57

An hour or two ago, I left the hospital after reading the Christmas story to a man and his wife and praying with them. The man has been in the hospital for 18 days. Each time that it looks like he will be able to leave, something happens to extend his stay. Yesterday or the day before, he developed a pulmonary embolism Continue reading →

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Joy: It’s Not Optional

Posted on December 17, 2025 by salooper57

And he will say: “Child, I know all, and we will talk about those things. But first, you must tell me why you were not more joyful. Do you have any explanation for that? Because, if you had just been more joyful, the grudge, the divorce, the cheating never would have happened.” Continue reading →

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Peace: What It Is, How to Experience It

Posted on December 10, 2025 by salooper57

Ms. Fader said, “If you’re a human being … and you’re not anxious, there’s something wrong with you.” Or just maybe, there is something right with you. Maybe what’s right, or what’s coming right, are your relationships. Continue reading →

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Closer to those Outside the Church

Posted on November 30, 2025 by salooper57

Watch a TV sitcom and see if that is how married couples are portrayed. My guess is that you will find just the opposite: the women treat their husbands like fools and the men don’t know their wives at all, and don’t want to. But that’s not just TV; it’s real life – your neighbors’ and coworkers’ lives. Continue reading →

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Closer to Each Other (Ephesians 4:25-32)

Posted on November 26, 2025 by salooper57

In the Bible, the Holy Spirit is especially concerned with/connected to/impacted by how a person speaks. If a Christian is unaware of the Holy Spirit in her life, the first thing she should do is check on what kind of speech is coming out of her mouth. Continue reading →

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Become Your True Self (Pt. 3: Put on a New Self)

Posted on November 19, 2025 by salooper57

Humans were designed this way. They were made with the capacity to transform into something the Marvel Cinematic Universe never imagined, something that can be astonishingly good and beautiful or hideously bad and ugly. Continue reading →

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Become Your True Self (Part 2 of 3)

Posted on November 13, 2025 by salooper57

We think of conversion as a point-in-time event – “I got converted in 1973” – because we think of ourselves as point-in-time beings. But it is not and neither are we. Conversion is not an event but a process, and it does not conclude in a moment. It is much bigger than that. Continue reading →

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The 3-D Marriage

Posted on November 8, 2025 by salooper57

Finding Mr. or Ms. Right does not guarantee a successful marriage, but when each member of the couple becomes the person God intends them to be, it does. Continue reading →

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