We are inevitably a product of our culture. We can’t help it. An example of this is when something bad happens to us, the first question in our head is “why?” Why would God allow such a thing to us? This says a lot about our expectations and what we think we deserve. We expect […]
Exodus 30:14-15-Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord’s offering. 15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord’s offering to make atonement for your lives. It is hard to look at […]
Yesterday, on the way back from the retreat, taking Mary Ann home, we saw the most gloriously vivid rainbow in the sky. It was as if we were entering into the throne room of God greeted by that double rainbow! God was literally making His grace visible! And it only added to the joy and […]
Proverbs 3:7-Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. Whether we believe it or not, people make decisions that we may think are bad for them, but in the person’s eyes it is what they desire. Now that desire can be altered by numerous things; culture, abuse, neighborhood, […]
The real Jesus is not for everyone. Only those who have known failure can know Him. Long ago, I was driving a church van and was overhearing a conversation between a pastor’s wife and a woman in her church. The woman had shared with the pastor’s wife that she had known much setbacks and failures […]
John 5:5-6–One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” Have you ever been challenged in a way that made you re-think your life? Has […]
Would you like to know how to have peace and contentment immediately? Say and mean, “Not my will, but yours be done.” Don’t all our discontentment and anxiety come from wanting our will? We know what we want and we have to have it in order to be happy. But when circumstances don’t conform to our will, […]
One of the evidences of our salvation is our church involvement. By church I mean the people; not the building or the activities. By involvement, I mean getting entangled and getting “tied” down. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For […]
Galatians 5:7-9–You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Being 37, I’m old enough now to see some friends that seemed to have very promising futures in their early twenties, now struggling to hold life together. […]
It seems to me that money, sex, power, and family are gods of the older generation. The new generation’s god? Individual freedom. Remember, our god is what we believe ultimately will give us happiness, fulfillment, meaning, significance, etc. It is what we sacrifice everything else to obtain. So, let’s take individual freedom. Has it become […]