In case you haven’t already noticed, December is a busy month. Whether or not you are a pastor, your schedule is surely more filled this month than is comfortable. As a pastor, December is literally the most challenging month of the year for me. There are three specifics I pray for (and ask others to pray for on my behalf) this month:

God is always working behind the scenes to provide for His children. Since He knows what tomorrow holds, one would think that trusting the Lord would be the only option in daily living. Have you ever wondered why God directed the wise men to bring expensive gifts to the Saviour when He was obviously too young to make use of them?

God wants His people to guard, guide, and give their hearts. When children give their hearts to their parents, they trust them to protect, provide, and prepare them to follow God’s will for their lives.

In today’s difficult economy, many are reducing expenses. While we all hate to be set back in any way, there are both wise and unwise ways to do this. Here are some thoughts that may be worthy of your consideration:

There’s nothing like a hospital room to condense your thoughts into the truly important. Something about the tubes, monitors, hoses, gloves, gowns, and even the smell all serve to rivet your mind on the eternal. During a recent visit to a hospital bedside, I read Psalm 34 with the family gathered in the room. As I read, several key truths—truths that really matter when you’re in the hospital—spoke to me:

As a principal, there are several traits I look for in teachers, and I would like to share seven of them with you:

Sermon outline: This is an abbreviated outline with the complete sermon downloadable at the bottom of the post. Every road has two dangers; two ditches. One ditch is a lazy worker. The other is a workaholic. Which ditch do you want to be in? Neither! I want to be on the main road. Let’s read Colossians 3:22–25.

As the results of the recent election became clear, I became concerned, not because of party or political issues, but for spiritual reasons. Those who elected our nation’s leaders reflect the hearts of our nation’s citizens. When a political party jeers at the name of God, rejects God’s plan for marriage, and endorses the killing of preborn children—and America elects those who hold these positions—we are in a difficult situation.

Common Craft is a company that has created hundreds of instructional videos on a variety of topics that are easy to understand for people without a technical background. As a part of Dr. Paul Chappell’s sermon series through the gospel of Luke, our web team has developed an interactive site to support the new preaching series, Journey with Jesus.

America’s Thanksgiving tradition is a time to focus on God and His blessings on us and on our nation. In a year that has provided America with hardships and economic challenges, perhaps it is even more important to focus on God this Thanksgiving and on the good things He has provided in the midst of our difficulties.