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"Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee" (Ex 20:12). Paul in Ephesians 6:2 identifies this instruction as being the first commandment with promise, but all of us know that respectfulness is not a natural trait in children. Children are selfish by nature; and selfish people are not respectful of others. Thus the question arises, how do we teach our children to be respectful?

Have you ever experienced a bad storm where trees fell across the electric wires and tore them apart putting your place or others "out of connection" with the power source? Or have you ever turned the key to start a piece of equipment only to find out it would not start because some safety wires had become disconnected? The good thing about these problems is that with a little physical effort, the problem can be solved by those who understand how such things work.

Tonight, I am missing the evening service. There are sick children at our house. My wife could have stayed home with them and I could have gone; but she stayed home this morning while I went to church.
Sick children are not fun. The flu bugs make their presence known in different ways and none of them really enjoyable. The care given to sick children is usually far less pleasant than the care given to "well" children. Sick children do fewer cute and endearing things. In fact, most times they don't do any at all. Sick children cry more and laugh less.

Herod the Great is likely one of the Bible's worst characters. Aside from his impressive architectural works for which he is justly famous, he is remembered as a self-seeking despot. His reign began with acts of great care and generosity to his subjects but was increasingly marked by cruelty, family intrigue, and murder. His secret agents spied on the conversations of private citizens; punishing those who dared to slander him. On his deathbed, he ordered his son Aristobulus executed for an attempt to gain power.

One feature of First Term Bible School this year has been the many questions that were asked. The desire of young people to know what the Bible says and its association with why we live the way we do is an honorable characteristic of youth growing into maturity.

First patented in 1884 by Paul Nipkow in Germany, the television has become the most sought out form of medium the world over, challenged only by the recent development of the Internet. With this in mind, I asked myself the question how would Jesus view the television if it had been available in His day? Would He see it as an outlet that could have enhanced His ministry, enabling Him to preach to the masses in a more efficient and large scale way? Would He have used it to send God's message to every Jew and Gentile in all of the civilized world?