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The Bread King Toddlers who receive gifts are often more interested in the wrapping paper and packaging than in what those things contain. We can do the same with God’s gifts. We become focused on the things we want from God and we lose sight of God Himself. This was the problem with the crowd that followed Jesus across the lake after the...

Bread from Heaven Many churches take steps to make certain that visitors feel comfortable. The greeting at the door, the music during the service, and the illustrations used in the sermon are all especially designed to make people curious about faith feel at home, in the hope that they will consider the gospel. Jesus’ interaction with the...

What Is Food For? Phyllis grew up in poverty during the Great Depression. Hunger was a daily concern for her family. Sometimes they had enough food for only three or four meals per week. On other occasions the entire family had to share a single can of beans. Perhaps because of this, Phyllis became obsessed with food as an adult. She had...

The End of Hunger and Thirst In 2015 the United Nations set a goal to end world hunger by the year 2030. As we enter 2019, it doesn’t seem likely that this goal will be achieved. According to the hunger relief organization Oxfam, the world produces 17 percent more food per person than it did 30 years ago, yet nearly one billion people still...

The Spring and the Lake A spring forms when water flows from an underground water source or aquifer to the surface, evidence of a greater source of water. The biblical metaphor of the spring also points us toward the source of eternal life. The Bible’s description of the new heavens and earth reveals that a very different order will replace...

Mature Faith Is God’s Gift In 1885, a Russian czar commissioned Carl Fabergé and his family jewelry business to create a special Easter gift for his wife. They designed a beautiful white egg, inside of which was a gold “yolk.” Inside of that was a golden hen, and inside of that was a miniature diamond crown and a tiny ruby egg. Known as the...

Mature Faith Obeys God’s Word A 2014 survey of “The Bible in American Life” found that only 48 percent of Americans reported reading any Scripture at any time during the previous year. Among those who did, the percentages were significantly higher for women, older people, Southerners, and African Americans. Just 9 percent of Americans, however,...

Mature Faith and Good Deeds: Example of Abraham How do we know Abraham had faith in God? Scripture tells us we know it by what he did (Heb. 11:8–19). He left his home to go to an unknown country. He trusted God to keep a humanly impossible promise to give him and Sarah a son. He was willing to sacrifice that son at God’s instruction. His...

Mature Faith and Good Deeds: Example of Rahab We know Rahab had faith in God because her actions revealed her faith (see Joshua 2; 6:22–25; Heb. 11:31). She hid the two Israelite spies from her own government, then misdirected their pursuers and helped them escape. She thus saved her entire extended family and ended up in the genealogy of...

Help One Another on the Path to Mature Faith From the EditorsIn “Pilgrims to the City of God,” musician and writer Michael Card sang: “Pilgrims of passion, we follow the One Who holds out a cross and a crown. We travel a dark road that has but one Light, For we have here no lasting town. And sometimes we run by the power of His might. On...