The parable of the mustard seed is a favorite parable of Jesus. Jesus says that it is a parable about the kingdom of God (Mark 4:30). The mustard seed is presented as a tiny seed that grows into a great…
Should I Become More or Less Involved with My Teen? In chapter 7, Huggins addresses the subject of how to respond to conflicts with our teens. Like many of you, I do not always want to admit that conflict is…
Teens as Free Agents with Choices to Make One of the challenges that I received from reading Parenting Adolescents was in chapter 10, “Responding to the Purposes in an Adolescent’s Heart.” In this chapter, he says that one of the…
Kevin Huggins, a biblical counselor and minister, wrote this book in 1989 to help parents of teenagers. I found this book, because another book about parenting teenagers recommended it. I read most of the book over the course of a…
The Spiritual Blindness of a Wealthy Church The letter to Laodicea provides a challenging conclusion to the seven letters. It has a distinct resemblance to God’s word through Old Testament prophets like Isaiah. The people of God at Laodicea need…
Repentance and Renewal of Fellowship with Jesus As noted above, the Laodicean church first needs Jesus to relieve their blindness to their sin. Then, they need to repent of their sin and seek his forgiveness and cleansing from sin. In…
The Church’s Spiritual Poverty and Blindness In Revelation 3:17, Jesus clarifies his source of dissatisfaction with the Laodicean church. He says, “Because you are saying, ‘I am rich,’ and ‘I have become rich,’ and ‘I am in need of nothing,’…
Overview of the Laodicea Letter In terms of overall tone and themes, the Laodicea letter is similar to the Sardis letter, but it is even more negative. Jesus does not mention any strengths for the church, nor does he mention…
The Philadelphia letter already contains several promises of Christ to this faithful church. It closes with his promises to the conquerors. Jesus says, “The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and…
The obedience of the church at Philadelphia comes up at the beginning of Revelation 3:10. It says, “Because you have kept my command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of testing that is going to come…