So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. My hands gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turned white, and my upper teeth ground against my lower teeth in…
For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.Did Imagine with me a hypothetical…
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. The story is told of a small town mayor here in Northeast Brazil who wanted to build a…
Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? As I have contemplated this text over the past couple weeks, two incidents from our life here in Brazil – both involving my oldest son Michael – were brought to my…
Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Living in a foreign country means that life is pretty much a never-ending series of adventures. Some…
For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor…
My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. Some of the most interesting places to visit in the four-hundred-year-old city of São Luís – where God has given us the privilege of ministering – are the old churches built by the Portuguese during colonial times….
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Certain things go together to such a degree that when they are separated, the individual parts lose all their significance. Examples: macaroni and cheese, Simon and Garfunkle, Laurel…
If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Last weekend, as I enjoyed the sights and sounds of Christmas in São Luís with my family, I came upon a scene that could only happen in 2020. In the middle…
But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. Our American culture has given us, over the years, a warped definition of the word “liberty”. I’m convinced that, were…