Kali Zakariasen

Hope Beyond Death

The righteous hath hope in his death. —Proverbs 14:32 We don’t like to talk about death; it’s the forbidden subject of our generation. Yet it’s real for all of us. Sometimes on television I see motion pictures featuring actors who are no longer living. They seem very much alive in the picture, but they are …

Make Room in Your Heart

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of …

Just As I Am

You are living a brand new kind of life . . . more and more like Christ who created this new life within you. —Colossians 3:10 (TLB) A long-haired blonde from a southern university seemed to be enjoying a satisfactory student career when her grades began to slip. “Life had become one long case of …

Grace and Peace

Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. —Ephesians 4:7 The Christian life is never spoken of in the Bible as a bed of roses. It is uphill, because society is coming one way and the Christian is going the opposite way. But Jesus said that …

The Secret of Surrender

Just as you used to be slaves to all kinds of sin, so now you must let yourselves be slaves to all that is right and holy. —Romans 6:19 (TLB) We have heard the modern expression, “Don’t fight it—it’s bigger than both of us.” Those who are meek do not fight back at life. They …

Unspeakable Joy

And the disciples were called Christians . . . —Acts 11:26 In the third century Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage, wrote to his friend Donatus, “It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and holy people, who have learned a great secret. …

The Purity of Marriage

Whatsoever things are pure . . . think on these things. —Philippians 4:8 Nowhere does the Bible teach that sex in itself is a sin. Man in his sinful nature has taken what was intended to be a glorious and complete act of love between two people and has made it something low, cheap, and …

Root of Sin

Overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us enough to die for us. —Romans 8:37 (TLB) The basic problem facing our world is not just social inequity, or lack of education, or even physical hunger. We are finding that highly educated and well-fed people have greed, hates, passions, and lusts that are not eliminated …

We Must Decrease

Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. —Lamentations 3:40 Our modern philosophy of self-reliance and self-sufficiency has caused many to believe that we can make the grade without God. “Religion,” they argue, “may be all right for certain emotional people, but you can’t beat a man who believes in …

This World Is Not Our Home

For we know that when this tent we live in now is taken down-when we die and leave these bodies-we will have wonderful new bodies in heaven, homes that will be ours forevermore, made for us by God himself, and not by human hands. —2 Corinthians 5:1 (TLB) Death, to the Christian, is the exchanging …