Articles by Marty Kessler

An interesting part of my wife’s history is that she graduated high school with Garth Brooks. They were class-mates and knew each other from classes they took together and from having been involved in some of the same school activities. Shortly after Garth’s first hit single came out we got to visit with him on his bus in Saltville, Virginia. He and his band were playing a free concert...

Through a simple exercise of eating and drinking together, Jesus gave us a means of remembering His sacrifice each week. My belief is that He provided this “supper” knowing we would need to be reminded often of this life-changing legacy of love. As things that are truly good have great value, reminders of such things will also be valuable. That’s one of the reasons I like to see ...

It is December. The Thanksgiving holiday has come and gone and Christmas is now coming into broader focus. With the season comes the Christmas carols, now being played regularly over the airwaves. Soon will come the television specials, many of which will feature current talent performing more carols. As a matter of fact, for most of this month our entire nation will be inundated with the songs of...

Once when I was nineteen I found myself pushing my motorcycle along the side of the road because I had run out of gas. Imagine my surprise when a tanker truck pulled off of the highway in front of me. The driver jumped out and came back and asked if I was out of gas. Learning that I was, he quickly produced a plastic container from somewhere, climbed up on top of that big tank, opened a hatch and ...

It is believed that most of the ideas behind the night we now call “Halloween” originated with the Celtic religion of Druidism which flourished for around 300-350 years between the second centuries BC and AD. For the Druids, this night meant that the “lighter” part of the year was coming to an end and the “darker” part was beginning. They further believed that o...

One of the greatest teachings in all of the Bible is often the one some folks have the most trouble believing. I’m writing about the fact that many struggle with believing that God forgives them based solely on their faith in His Son. This is a great irony, since forgiving us is the whole reason why He sent Jesus and then provided the Bible to show us that this has been His intention through...

One of the clearest teachings in Jesus‘ New Testament is that all of us have sinned and fallen short of God‘s glory. Several passages such as Romans 3:23, James 3:2 and 1st John 1:8 & 10 make this clear. But what does this teaching mean to you? Some want to make this teaching mean that since everyone has sinned, no one has the right to correct or even address sin in another person&...

Some say, that the baptism Jesus commissioned in Matthew 28:18-20 is, “an outward sign of an inward grace”. This sounds very nice and quite religious, but though I have heard it for years, I cannot believe that it is true. My problem is that this teaching just isn’t found anywhere in the Bible. I have asked some who make this claim to show me where it is taught, but as yet none o...

Trust God to be totally aware of the situation about which I am worrying so much about and to do something about it - After all, you and I are so limited in such things as what we know, what we can do about what we know, where we can be, how much energy we have to expend… well, you get the picture. God is not limited in any of these ways. Ephesians 3:20 says that He is able to do far more t...

Through the years, I’ve heard a lot of people claim that baptism is not an essential part of our salvation because the thief Jesus took into Paradise was not baptized. Is this sound reasoning? I don’t believe it is for a number of reasons, a few of which I will try to explain below. #1 That thief lived and died under the Old Testament, or Covenant - He died next to the Lord in a time o...

In the Oklahoma City news this week was an article about a small group of Satan worshipers who were having a “Blasphemy ritual” in a local civic center designed to parody a Catholic exorcism. As I watched the reports and listened to the representative of the Satanic cult and two local Baptist ministers making commentary on the whole thing I made a few observations. The first thing I no...

1. Be sexually pure because it is right. Sexual purity is used in Revelation 14:1-5 to express righteousness. Genesis 1:26-31 and 2:18-25 make it clear that marriage is the only relationship designed for the expression of intimate sexuality (so do many other Bible passages). Defilement comes from sexual relationships outside of marriage. 2. Be sexually pure to maintain your dignity, self-respect a...

Since the beginnings of Christianity, the sign of the fish has been used as a symbol of the faith. Although there is no mention of its use in Jesus’ teachings, or that of His apostles or prophets, in many ways it seems an apt symbol to use, assuming any symbol at all should be employed as it has been. But why use the fish? Perhaps the best place to begin answering this question is in the spe...

We humans form habits. The Bible tells of some who were a part of the church, but had developed the habit of forsaking the assembling of the church. The writer warns that that is a bad habit that can lead to a “terrifying expectation of judgment”, Hebrews 10:26-27. The best counter to that bad habit would be to develop the good habit of attending the assemblies of the church on a faith...

(from Genesis 3:1-24)   Life gets tougher when you don’t do what is right Adam and Even had it made in the garden. Every need was fulfilled and they were together with God, the source of all good things. They crossed an obvious line into disobedience against what they knew to be right and their whole lives changed. Don’t listen to a liar, especially one who doesn’t have your...

While there is no passage outlining the exact order of that final day, we can read of each of the following events and know that they will be included:  First of all, that day will come at a time when we are not expecting it:  For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. Matthew 24:44  …you yourselves know full...

I have known a lot of people through the years who made it a practice to avoid the issue of their need for Jesus. They do so in the vain hope that their own morality will be their salvation. Actually, what they are counting on is that their lack of gross immorality is their ticket to not being punished. You can see this idea in popular movies such as “Ghost” (1990... man, has it really...

On July fourth, 1776, the Continental Congress of the thirteen American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. A new nation was born taking upon itself the responsibility for self-government. But the founding fathers, and indeed other national leaders who followed them, understood that without the dependence of individual citizens on Almighty God, our form of government would be ...

  Just wondering if the average “Joe” is at all familiar with modern abortion techniques? I thought that since, among other reasons, this is a hot political issue, you should be aware of just how some of them work. You may want to sit down before you read these.  First there is the “suction aspiration method” which utilizes a very powerful vacuum. The vacuum hose ...

I have observed that there is sometimes confusion over what place pride should play in our lives. As I see it, there are two kinds of pride. One I would refer to as “virtuous pride” and the other, “arrogant pride”. I believe that all pride, both virtuous and arrogant, is based in our individual concepts of rightness. What I mean is that each of us has a concept of something...