Posts by Richard Parrish

Step One: Get the facts before you react! Discord is in every corner of life: Marriage, work, politics, school, and the church. Even people with well-meaning intentions can create conflict. Just ask Joshua. In the Old Testament (Joshua 22), God’s chosen people are united in serving Him. Aside from occasional spats, they remain united as…

“How is it possible to love the Azerberjanis?” An Armenian pastor asked me that question while grieving the loss of young men from his church killed in a needless war. “I know we must love our enemies,” he said, “but how?” It was an honest question from a grieving heart, one I hear more and…

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” – Exodus 20:17 (ESV) It’s tempting to view God’s commandments as restrictive and suppressive. However, God is loving and desires to…

Step Two: Clarifying the facts requires a qualified team. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!” – Psalm 133:1 (NASB95) When we experience unity, it’s rest for the soul. The Psalmist provides a visual image of experiencing unity: “It’s like the precious oil on the head that…

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” – Exodus 20:16 (ESV) “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false…

“God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him. We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom, courageous in sea-storms and earthquakes, before the rush and roar of oceans, the tremors that shift mountains. Jacob-wrestling God fights for us, God-of-Angel-Armies protects us. – Psalm 46:1-3 (The Message). Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase…

William Barclay writes: “One of the rarest things in modern society is to carry out the Christian Ethic of absolute honesty in a society in which strict honesty has almost ceased to be a virtue.”⁠[1] Some things are still wrong, even if our friends say, “it’s okay.” My friends thought it was “cool.” I was…

Almost daily, we hear of an adulterous affair. Infidelity by celebrities, politicians, clergy, businessmen, and women is attractive bait for the media to increase audience ratings.  It’s challenging to find television programming that does not include or insinuate an adulterous relationship. The “forbidden” somehow becomes a winsome, magnetic attraction that draws the audience in —…

It’s common for people to see conflicting commandments in the Bible. In Exodus 20:13, the commandment is emphatic: “You shall not murder.” Pretty straightforward, right? But one chapter later, we are instructed: “Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.” – Exodus 21:12. So, what is it? If we are…