Articles by Curtis Hartshorn

“What Does God expect from me? I read all these commands in the Bible. I listen to the sermons and classes about how I need to do this and that, change this and that. It’s a bit overwhelming. I’m not a complicated person. Isn’t there a way to dumb-it-down, to make this stuff simpler? I just want to know what God wants from me.” Anytime we have questions, the Bible has an answer. Micah 6:6-8 says, ...

Can you see the hand of God in life’s occurrences too well orchestrated to be a coincidence? That is what the world calls it; “coincidence.” Things just happen by accident. There’s no order, no rhyme or reason. That’s how unbelievers see life. Believers see it differently. We see a pattern to the events of our lives. We see too many coincidences for it all to be a coincidence. We may not notice ri...

“Warning! In case of rapture this car will be driverless.” Have you seen this bumper sticker before? It used to be fairly common. On the bright side, it got people thinking about the return of Christ. Unfortunately, the premise is based on a theology which goes against the Bible. There is not going to be a rapture as many church leaders are describing nowadays. At least, nothing like what you see ...

Is the kind man I see at work every day my brother in Christ? He says he is a Christian. Should I just take him at his word and leave it at that? How do I determine whether he is one whom I should be sharing the gospel with or one I should consider already in a saved condition? What about my friend who attends a denominational church? Is she one I should treat as a sister in Christ, or do I need t...

Curtis’ Corner “and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.” Philemon 1:6 (ESV). When we get together as Christians it strengthens our faith. The praying and singing and taking the Lord’s Supper and preaching, it all motivates us to trust God more and want to know Him in a deeper way. When our faith...

Americans drink about 400 million cups of coffee every day. We say we like the taste, the smell, but truth is it’s the caffeine that keeps us firing up the coffee pot or stopping by the coffee shop every morning. We think we’re drinking it for the energy boost, but caffeine doesn’t give you energy. Adenosine is a chemical your body releases to tell your brain you are tired. Caffeine blocks the rec...

One of the worst things you could do to yourself is place yourself in a position where you are not accountable to anybody. When I was young, I was constantly trying to get out from under everybody’s authority. I wanted to call my own shots; to answer to nobody; to run my own life. Years of studying scripture and watching others ruin their lives, have deeply impressed upon me the necessity of accou...

Learning the Word of God and applying what you learn, not only makes your spirit well; it also blesses you with mental/ emotional health. There is a right way of thinking and a wrong way of thinking. Think about it. I’ll bet a problem you’re facing right now in your life can be traced to thinking the wrong way about an obstacle or situation you faced in the past. Right? What you believe guides the...

Do you play solitaire on your cell phone? I don’t have games on phone now, but years ago I had solitaire in case I had to wait on somebody. Growing up playing sports has made me a little (overly) competitive at most everything I do and solitaire is no exception. I played to win and would get perturbed when I make a bad move, but years ago I found a button that reduced the stress in my miniature vi...

Purpose. Life needs purpose. There has to be a reason we are here. If God made us, what did He make us for? If it wasn’t God, what was it and why do we exist? Those questions are as old as time itself and the answers range from absolutely absurd to undeniably true. Are you looking for purpose? Do you think about why you are here? You are not here by accident. There is a loving God who created you ...

God above is worthy of all the praise and adoration we could possibly give Him today. Our Father loves us. He truly does, and He always has our best interest at heart. As a loving Father, He instructs us how to stay away from what is harmful and detrimental to our wellbeing. He instructs us through His Word, the Bible. Anything the Bible calls a sin is a behavior each child of God needs to stay aw...

“Jesus is all the world to me, My life, my joy my all;” These words written in 1904 by Will L. Thompson so aptly express the attitude every Christian should have. If someone asked you, “What does Jesus mean to you?” what would you say? Would you say Jesus is your whole world? Is Jesus reigning as the Lord of your life or is He a token of general rules you try to live by? Life is about the choices ...

“Then I said, "Alas, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, Because I am a youth." But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am a youth,' Because everywhere I send you, you shall go, And all that I command you, you shall speak.” Jeremiah 1:6-7. Jeremiah was young when he became a prophet in Judah. He thought he was too young, but God disagreed. Our Lord was able to turn this youth into a mig...

Would you consider yourself physically fit? Would you say you are in pretty good shape for your age? A friend of mine told me once, “I'm in shape. Round is a shape.” If you take good care of yourself physically, eat right, get proper exercise, control your weight, a healthy lifestyle makes a big difference in the way you handle daily challenges. Getting to your peak physical condition and staying ...

Getting robbed is a demoralizing experience. Someone has taken something that belonged to you without asking, unlawfully. You feel violated. Suddenly you are without something that is rightfully yours. Did you know it is possible for us to rob God? We can’t go to His house and take His possessions, but we can steal from Him by withholding that which rightfully belongs to Him. “Will a man rob God? ...

Boys will be boys. There is typical boy behavior and typical girl behavior and it has to do with how God made us rather than social norms. God did not make the first man the same way He made the first woman. Taking the man’s rib He “fashioned” the woman from it, Genesis 2:22. We are both from the same Maker but fashioned differently for a reason. Men and women are different and thank God we are. L...

Approximately 12½ million African people were captured and shipped to North America as slaves from 1525 to 1866. An estimated 2 million did not survive the voyage. It is considered the most heinous blight on this country’s history. Americans don’t like to talk about it. We don’t even want to think about it, but it happened; it happened for 341 years. Because of this ugly part of our past, we think...

“How are you?” “Fine.” That used to be the common response to the question “How are you?”. Now the most common response is “Tired.” Everybody is tired. Why are we so tired? When I was in high school teachers told us that by the time we were adults, computers would be doing everything for us, and we would have more free time. While computers don’t do EVERYTHING for us, there are modern innovations ...

The problem of selfishness has been around as long as people have walked the earth. Satan would not have been able to tempt Eve were it not for her selfish desires. She wanted to taste of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil even though God said she couldn’t. Eve’s selfish nature told her she was cheating herself. She wanted more knowledge for herself, and her selfishness led to her fall. Sh...

Born blind. Life would seem so incomplete without sight. People could describe it to you, you could touch it, hear it, smell it, but never have the experience of seeing it. In John 9 there was a man who had been blind his entire life; blind until Jesus healed him. What it must have been like to finally see trees, birds and the sky for the first time. What a flood of sensation this man must have ex...