Bill Fleming, Springfield, Mo.: “Not only is my granddaughter, who goes to Independence Community College, a really good softball player, she is also on the President’s Honor Roll, and always goes to church.”

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With KAY Citizenship Week being this week (Nov. 12-18), the KAYs are busy doing various service projects for their family, school, community, nation, world and club. They included: Sunday, Nov 12—Serve My Family— Doing something with your family such as eating a meal together, putting up Christmas decorations, raking leaves, playing a game, etc.;

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By some estimates, knowledge in the world doubles every 13 months. While we all could debate that topic for some time, one of the things that Christians know for sure is that God is omniscient. He is all-knowing. 1 John 3:20 says, “He knows everything.” Matthew 10:29-30 tells us, “Not even a sparrow, worth only half a penny, can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered.” That is omniscient.

SPEAKING TRUTH. Have you ever verbally raked someone over the coals to get them to think about their direction in life? It's not necessarily fun, but sometimes people need a true friend to help them. God led the Apostle Paul to tell Christians in Ephesus that they should be 'speaking the truth in love' (Eph. 4:15). This indicates two truths. First, if we're going to help people spiritually, we must speak the truth of God's Word. Some people don't want to hear the truth. However, shielding people from spiritual truth will never help them. Secondly, if we're going to find receptive hearts when telling people God's truth, we must speak His truth from a foundation of true, agape love for the person. Attitude matters. That's exactly what the unknown author of the Book of Hebrews did when he mentioned Esau in chapter 12. He spoke the truth in love. Esau was the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham. His twin brother was Jacob. But as the oldest son, Esau was in line to inherit the spiritual birthright, including being in the lineage of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. What a huge blessing that would have been! However, what did Esau do? He sold his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup. In Genesis 25:32, when he came in from hunting and was suffering from great hunger, he told his brother, 'Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?' No wonder the author of Hebrews calls him 'godless' (12:16). But these Jewish Christians in the book of Hebrews were looking at leaving faith in Jesus simply because of a bit of suffering. In other words, they were just as godless as Esau due to trivial suffering not hunger for a bowl of soup, but persecution for being Christians. The author spoke the truth in love even as he lambasted them for their lack of faith. May the Lord give us grace to help others by speaking His truth in love.