Have you ever wondered what God is doing when He seems completely absent?
The book of Esther is unique because God’s name is never mentioned—not once. Yet as you read, His fingerprints are everywhere. Long before anyone realized it, He was quietly arranging people, circumstances, and even a pagan king to preserve His covenant people.
But today’s readings raise several other important questions as well.
Does Proverbs 22:6 really guarantee that every child raised in a Christian home will follow the Lord? If not, what does that familiar verse actually mean?
And in Romans, Paul warns about one of the easiest traps for religious people to fall into—hypocrisy and self-righteousness. Could it be possible to know the truth while failing to live by it?
Today’s readings remind us that God is always at work—even when we can’t see Him—and that He is just as concerned with the condition of our hearts as He is with what we do on the outside.
Churches today are filled with people doing religious things.
They attend services, pray, sing worship songs, volunteer, give money, and try to live respectable lives. From the outside, they look like faithful Christians.
But God has never been impressed by outward appearances.
He has always looked at the heart.
Some people have never truly understood the gospel and, despite years in church, have never experienced genuine heart transformation. Others know the truth but are trying to appear spiritual while quietly living in disobedience.
How can we know the difference between genuine faith and empty religion?
Today’s readings give us a sobering warning—and a wonderful invitation to examine our hearts before God. Because while religious activity may fool people, it never fools Him.
Have you ever wondered why we don’t see the kinds of powerful moves of God that we read about in the book of Acts?
Was God simply working differently then? Or could there be another reason?
In today’s reading, we encounter one of the most shocking events in the New Testament. A husband and wife tell what many people would call a “little white lie,” and both lose their lives. At first glance, God’s response can seem severe. But what if this account reveals something important about holiness, hypocrisy, and the fear of God?
Could it be that one of the reasons there is so little spiritual power in many churches today is not that God has changed—but that we have?
Let’s take a closer look at Acts 5 and what it teaches us about truth, obedience, and the kind of faith God blesses.
God will not play spiritual pat-a-cake with us by allowing us to seek His help while we continue turning to our idols and self-efforts. If God doesn’t seem to be answering our prayers, maybe we need to ask ourselves, “Am I playing spiritual games with God?”
And what about those who might be playing games with their own eternity by claiming a relationship with God and living another way?
Angry children—we see them in the grocery store, in the schoolyard, on the news, and possibly in our own homes. While all of us, including our children, are responsible for our choices, as parents we are warned not to provoke our children to anger. Two ways we do that are by living a hypocritical lifestyle and parental role reversal. We may be guilty of those or other ways without even realizing it.
We’ll, also, look at the armor of God, what it is, and how we put it on. It’s not as mysterious or mystical as it might seem.
