Change, Seeming Change And God’s Stability

by Kevin Burton    You fearful and despairing, you weary of mind and heart, comfort today from The Bible, with help from a French novelist.    “The more things change, the more they are the same” is the best-known quotation of Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808 –1890) a French critic, journalist, and novelist.    You’ve probably heard …

Tribulation Is Part Of God’s Plan For Believers

by Kevin Burton    I just created my 32nd set of memory verses. On a good day I can recite most of the verses on the first try. But today my mind is on one I would rather forget.    Acts 14:22 is the fourth verse in the set I have on index cards with …

What Is Your Spiritual Plus-Minus Today?

by Kevin Burton    Today my reading of an Alistair Begg message has me thinking about basketball?    Basketball, really?    Begg is the speaker on the Truth for Life radio ministry. I get an e-mail from that website every day with some kind of message – a challenge, encouragement, call to joyfulness – all …

Weighing Philippians 1:21 “To Live Is Christ”

by Kevin Burton    When people think of you, what comes first to their mind? Or asked another way, what should  go into the first paragraph of your obituary?    I’m asking these questions today in the context of devotion to Christ, and Phil. 1:21 where the Apostle Paul writes “For to me to live …

Be Thankful To God, Stop Complaining

by Kevin Burton    I caught myself in a lie last week. Christmas music, in a manner of speaking, revealed it to me.    Stay with me here.    I have heard people talk about when it was OK to begin playing Christmas music each year, after Thanksgiving, end of November, whatever. But I haven’t …

The Spiritual Danger Of Procrastination

by Kevin Burton    Twice on Page 7 I have taken a light-hearted look at procrastination, in essence winking at the practice.    No real harm if all we’re talking about is cleaning out the garage.    In the spiritual realm however, putting off important decisions can go from the comedic to the tragic. And …

Living Dogs And Dead Lions From Ecclesiastes

by Kevin Burton    If I say, “God knows the heart” you know just what I mean, right?  Because you know the heart, somewhat, sometimes.    Much of the time people speaking to you in the name of a corporation will lie to you outright for the sake of profit. Or, they will emphasize the …

Draw Near To God, He Bids Us, Draw Near

by Kevin Burton    If you don’t know the Old Testament you’re going to gloss over, what is now one of my favorite parts of the gospel story.    I missed it completely until somebody on one of the radio ministries (I forget which one now), explained it.    It has to do with the …

This God-Man Jesus Receives Sinners

by Kevin Burton     What the scribes and Pharisees spat out as an accusation against Jesus, I now cling to for all I’m worth.    We turn to a passage in the book of Luke. Jesus was teaching in public as was His custom. The Jewish religious leaders of the time criticized Jesus for the …

Humbly Gleaning In God’s Good Field

by Kevin Burton    From the Old Testament book of Ruth comes a message of faithful, steady industry, to the gain of those who walk with God.    Our lesson today is about gleaning.    Ruth is a love story, but without sappy sentiment. It is a picture of what God has done for humanity, …