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In 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California. By 1849, more than 100,000 prospectors had flooded the state, hoping to strike it rich. Many of these inexperienced miners were badly fooled when they mistook pyrite for real gold. It shined. It sparkled. It looked valuable. But it was not gold, so it earned the name “fool’s gold.” To tell the difference, prospectors learned to test it: Real gold dents when you bite it or press it with a knife, while pyrite cracks. Real gold leaves a yellow streak when rubbed on porcelain, while pyrite leaves a black one.

Dr. Martin Luther King said, “Love is the most powerful force in the universe,” and that is true, not just because he said it, but because Jesus said the same thing in God’s Word when He gave us the two greatest commandments: Love God and love your neighbor. If everyone truly loved this way, we would not need jails, weapons, or courts, because love never fails.

There is a message that needs to be shouted from the rooftops to every man and woman between the ages of 21 and 30: Grow up. In 1960, 66% of men and 77% of women had hit all five traditional adulthood milestones by age 30—leaving home, getting formal schooling, marrying, having a child, and gaining financial independence. By 2010, only 28% of men and 39% of women had done the same, and by 2026 that number is expected to fall to somewhere between 15 and 25%.

The Cleveland Clinic is ranked the #2 hospital in the world, renowned for cardiology and heart surgery. Imagine going there with a serious heart issue—you’d have brilliant surgeons, skilled nurses, advanced imaging, and the best care available. But the most important part of that hospital isn’t what you see; it’s what you don’t see: the power plant. No matter how great the surgeons or how advanced the equipment, if the power plant fails, nothing can be done. The hospital becomes no more valuable than a cabin in the woods.

Ever wondered the secret to marriages that last 60 years? I heard about an elderly couple celebrating their diamond anniversary who shared their story: On their honeymoon at the Grand Canyon, the wife’s mule stumbled, and she said calmly to the animal, “That’s once.” When it stumbled again, she said, “That’s twice.” The third time, she got off and shot the mule right between the eyes. When her husband asked why, she looked him in the eyes and said, “That’s once”—and they never had another major disagreement! While there’s humor in that story, the truth is that God desires for everyone who gets married to truly live happily ever after. When two people get married, it’s God’s will for that marriage to be a happy union instead of a civil war. He wants every marriage to end in celebration, not separation, enjoying marriage, not enduring it. That’s why God’s Word gives us a marriage example through an old love song: It’s King Solomon’s Song of Songs. In this book, you find the four essential keys to building a marriage that lasts.

I heard a story about a daughter who wrote her dad about marrying someone she met online: “We met on eHarmony, became friends on Facebook, had long chats on WhatsApp. He proposed on Zoom.” Her dad replied, “I suggest you two get married on X, have fun on Tango, buy your kids on Amazon, and, when you get fed up with this new husband, just sell him on eBay.” There are lots of views today on what marriage is, but the one opinion that should really matter is that of the One who invented marriage—Jesus. Even though Jesus was single and never married, He knew more about marriage than any marriage counselor because marriage was His idea. When the Pharisees asked Him about divorce, Jesus didn’t answer their question about how to get out of marriage. Instead, He explained why you should stay in marriage. In one simple but unbelievably strong sentence, Jesus taught that in marriage math, 1 + 1 = 1. In this passage, Jesus outlined the three principles you need to guard what God has established and, in doing so, fulfill His purpose in your life.

What if finding the right person to marry isn’t actually the secret to a happy marriage? Everyone wants a fairy-tale marriage, but it’s a tragedy when fairy tales turn into horror stories because we misplace our expectations. The real problem is this: Every person wanting to get married is looking for the right person, but it will do you no good to find the right person if you are not the right person to be married to. That’s why every marriage should begin with not just a husband and wife, but a godly husband and a godly wife. A marriage made in Heaven begins with a spouse given by Heaven. Learn the three specific things every heavenly-given husband must do for his wife to create a marriage that truly is happily ever after.

You may remember Frank Sinatra’s classic hit about love and marriage going together. Now, that may have been true 70 years ago, but it’s not the same today. In 1960, 59% of adults ages 18 to 29 were married compared to only 20% today. It seems our culture has become one of “hook up, shack up, and break up.” As a result, many think doing a series on marriage is a fool’s errand. But from the very beginning of time, God’s Word says, marriage has mattered, and it always will. It’s not coincidental that God’s Word begins with a wedding between Adam and Eve and ends with a wedding between Christ and the church. We face something unprecedented in our country, with marriages failing and the very institution of marriage being questioned. But God calls you to remember what He says about marriage instead of being conformed to the world’s view of marriage, because healthy homes, communities, and nations depend upon it.

The most nervous I have ever been in my life was the day I was about to say the two words that I knew would change everything. Looking into the eyes of the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, having known her only six months, I said, “I do.” At that moment, the word “marriage” took on a whole different meaning, from the hypothetical to the actual, from the imagined to the real, and from the abstract to the concrete. In this cultural moment, marriage is becoming like a dinosaur, with marriage rates at their lowest since 1867 and 40% of Americans viewing it as obsolete. But it is God’s idea, and though it takes hard work, it is God’s work. Through the first marriage in history, you will learn that when you align yourself with God’s Word on marriage, you experience His freedom and blessing.

If you have truly given your life to Jesus, there is a question you have probably asked more than once: If I am really saved, why do I still sin? The fact that the question bothers you is itself a mark of genuine faith. A person who doesn’t know Jesus wouldn’t be troubled by it. Augustine gave the best answer over 1,600 years ago: “During this earthly pilgrimage our life cannot be free from temptation, for none of us comes to know ourselves except through the experience of temptation, nor can we be crowned until we have come through victorious ….” The battle is real, and the Apostle John knows it. But the fantastic news is that in the end, sin can’t win. Salvation comes in three tenses: We have been saved from the penalty of sin (our past), we are being saved from the power of sin (our present), and one day we will be saved from the very presence of sin (our future). John gives us three truths in 1 John 3:4–10 that show why daily victory over sin is not just a hope but a real and present possibility for every believer.

Imagine being a child in an orphanage. You have no name, no family, no certainty about tomorrow. Then one day a family walks in, looks across a room full of children, and points to you. “We want you,” they say. In that moment, you might think only of the bare minimum: a roof, food, someone looking out for you. But you wouldn’t yet understand the total package of a permanent name, the unconditional love, and the full inheritance of being truly adopted. That is the picture John is painting in 1 John 3:1 when he writes, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (ESV). That first word, “See,” is better translated “Behold!” or “Stop everything and look at this.” The word John uses for “what kind” of love means literally “out of this world.” In three verses, John answers the three deepest questions every human being carries: Who am I? Where am I going? Why am I here? The answer to each one is bound up in what you receive because of Jesus.

On September 19, 2010, Army EOD technician Brian Mast stepped on an IED in Afghanistan and lost both legs above the knee and a finger. He lived because a Level IV body armor plate stopped a large fragment from reaching his heart. He said, “That plate took the hit so my heart didn’t have to.” He calls September 19th his “Alive Day.” We too walk through a world with an unseen enemy—the spirit of antichrist—always looking to fire weapons we never see coming. In 1 John 2:18, John gives us fair warning: “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come” (ESV). Antichrist is not only a coming person; it is a philosophy alive in the world right now, and its whole purpose is to deceive the sinner and defeat the saint. John’s answer is one word he uses several times in this passage: abide. There is a bulletproof vest available to every believer, made of three layers: the Word of God, the Son of God, and the Spirit of God, and putting it on is a daily choice.

The quiz show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? reminded millions of Americans of the humbling truth that the average person knows less than a ten-millionth of one percent of all available knowledge. Even the greatest genius walks through life with only a small bucket of understanding in an ocean of what could be known. But John cuts through all of that and asks the one question that actually determines where you spend eternity: Do you know God? In 1 John 2:3, he writes, “And by this we know that we have come to know him …” (ESV). In fact, of all the things you could know in this world, the only one that ultimately matters is Who you know. Knowing God is not just possible; it is meant to be certain. John gives us three signs, visible in how we live, how we look, and how we love, that confirm we truly do.

What if understanding one biblical word could change everything about your relationship with God? In the comic strip Peanuts, Lucy fears a thunderstorm might flood the world, but Linus reassures her by explaining God’s promise to Noah and the rainbow as a guarantee. Lucy says Linus has really reassured her, and Linus says, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.” Indeed, the church desperately needs sound theology today, especially about salvation—what the entire Bible is all about. In our “Lost in Translation” series, we’re defining key biblical words that many Christians don’t really understand. Today’s topic emerges in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, a highly religious Pharisee and member of the Jewish ruling council, to whom Jesus delivered a shocking message: “You must be born again.” This conversation reveals where salvation begins—with regeneration, the miracle where God gives spiritually dead people spiritual life.

Have you ever heard of the placebo effect? It is what happens when a person’s health improves not because of any real treatment, but simply because they believed it would work. Most delusions are harmless, but Jesus warned about one kind that carries eternal consequences. And He is not talking to atheists or agnostics in this passage. He is not talking about those who are far from God; He is talking about people who walked an aisle, filled out a card, said a prayer, got baptized, and were absolutely convinced they were on the right road. As He closed the Sermon on the Mount, He said the most sobering words I have ever read: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21, NIV). Three warnings from Jesus will help you make absolutely certain you are not kidding yourself.