My family and I love to go to the symphony. We get a teacher's discount and prefer John Williams (Star Wars and Indiana Jones themes) to Mozart or Beethoven. But one of my favorite parts of the symphony is watching the musicians come on stage and do their warm-ups. One by one each musician takes their seat on stage and begins doing scales, tuning the instruments, and playing small parts of the larger pieces they will be playing later in the concert.

Read more: Together...In Harmony by Michael Hite

By Mike Riley

A Native American and his friend were in downtown New York City, walking near Times Square. It was during the noon lunch hour and the streets were filled with people. Cars were honking their horns, taxicabs were squealing around corners, sirens were wailing, and the sounds of the city were almost deafening. Suddenly, the Native American said, “I hear a cricket.” His friend said, “What? You must be crazy. You couldn’t possibly hear a cricket in all this noise!” “No, I’m sure of it,” the Native American said, “I heard a cricket.” “That’s crazy,” said the friend.

Read more: Listening For God’s Voice

By, Mike Riley

In 2 Corinthians 10:12, Paul tells his opponents that one way to correctly measure spiritual growth is to discontinue using worldly yardsticks, and begin using God’s yardstick (2 Corinthians 10:13). By the world’s measure, Paul seemed a failure, but in God’s eyes he was a glorious conqueror (Romans 8:31-39). In this article, let us briefly look at four biblical standards by which we can accurately measure spiritual growth.

1) Spiritual Diet Meat vs. Milk (1 Corinthians 3:1-2). Are we studying and learning more about God’s Word, going broader and deeper than ever before, or are we satisfied with what we’ve known for years, or worse yet, not reading and studying at all? (2 Timothy 2:15).

Read more: Measuring Spiritual Growth

By, Mike Riley

Shortly after Simon Peter made his confession to Jesus (Matthew 16:13-20 – NKJV), the gospel account next records the following exchange between Master and disciple:

“From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!’ But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men’” (Matthew 16:21-23 – NKJV).

Read more: “Get Behind Me, Satan!”