Brent Smith [Brent Smith is the preaching minister of the Trenton Church of Christ in Trenton, Tennessee.] Have you ever been in that happy place where everything was good in your life, if only for a little while? Was it a graduation, a wedding, a honeymoon or the birth of your child? Maybe you…
By Brent Smith [Brent is the preaching minister of the Trenton Church of Christ in Trenton, Tennessee.] A faithful Christian man serves his country in the military and comes back from combat without his legs and his eyesight. He struggles for the next 50 years until his body finally wears out. Then he goes home…
Egypt is a mess. Speaking through his servant Moses, the Lord has commanded Pharaoh to release his enslaved people. The king of Egypt has stubbornly resisted. Who is this God of yours? I don’t know him. Severe plagues have hammered the land—blood in the Nile, swarms of frogs, gnats, flies, dead cattle, boils, hail. Before…
Moses has been tending sheep in the desert for 40 years. He isn’t really interested in God’s plan to send him back to Egypt to lead the Hebrews out of bondage. So he argues with God, posing one objection after another. I’m not eloquent, Moses says. Biblical evidence argues otherwise. So why does he say…
Young Moses understood that God had called him to lead the Hebrews out of Egyptian slavery. He was the perfect choice for the task, after all. Pharaoh’s own daughter had adopted him as her son. So Moses had connections in the highest places. He had power and property. He had the finest education. The people…
By Brent Smith [Brent is the preaching minister of the Trenton Church of Christ in Trenton, Tennessee.] Aside from the obvious political connotations, what am I really praying for when I ask God to make America great again? Studies show that abortions in the U.S. have decreased by more than 10% since 2010. In that…
The name Jacob comes from the Hebrew word for “heel.” When big brother Esau is born, Jacob is right behind him—clinging firmly to his foot. Jacob is a heel-holder, a wrestler always manipulating, outmaneuvering, and outwitting others. But tonight he is out of aces. Tonight his pride finally meets its master. Jacob is returning home…
Paul told the Corinthians that “love never ends; as for prophecy, it will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” (1 Cor. 13:8). What are “tongues”? The only narrative in the Bible describing tongues in detail was written by Luke: “And they were all filled with the…
Sarah is infertile. So she exercises a right stipulated in her marriage covenant. She gives her slave girl to her husband. Ishmael, the child born to Abraham and Hagar, legally belongs to Sarah. But Sarah doesn’t want him. Giving Hagar to Abraham hasn’t worked out so well. (Failing to follow God’s plan for marriage never…
Two angels come to Sodom one evening. Angels are messengers. They speak for God. These two appear as men. Lot recognizes them as strangers and urges them to accept his hospitality. He brings them into his house and entertains them with a feast. The men of Sodom, all sexual perverts, surround Lot’s house at bedtime.…