Proverbs 29:19 “Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint…” Do you, like many, struggle with self-discipline? When we have no vision or goal we aspire to, scripture says we will “cast off restraint.” Why go through the rigors of self-denial and discipline if there’s no pay off? We Continue Reading…
Acts 12:14-15 “When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, ‘Peter is at the door!’ ‘You’re out of your mind,’ they told her.” Whether praising, repenting or petitioning, I love communing with God. But a recent study of Acts 12 prompted me Continue Reading…
Joshua 6:10 “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!” Have you ever considered how much self-control it must have taken Israel to obey God at Jericho? The army was full of Continue Reading…
Psalm 40:17 “But as for me, I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; you are my God, do not delay.” Deliver me Jesus. Those words were scribbled on the carton of a half-empty case of beer I discovered behind our church Continue Reading…
Mark 1:45 “…As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.” Satan is the master messer-upper. He fans the flames of separation and hatred, incites violence, and does anything within the power he’s been granted to Continue Reading…
Matthew 26: 43 “When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.” Jesus agonized at Gethsemane. The inconceivable awareness of the power of sin produced such anguish that his sweat took the form of blood (hematidrosis). For the first time, his will conflicted with his Continue Reading…
Isaiah 45:3 “I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.” It was Sunday morning and I had just finished the last talk of five I had given at Continue Reading…
Luke 2:11 “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” The contrast could not be sharper. Jesus’ arrival and departure on earth paint stark differences. Mary’s kiss of affection on her baby’s cheek is replaced with Judas’ greedy kiss of betrayal. Adorned in Continue Reading…
John 20:29 “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Seeing is believing. Seems like a harmless expression. An idiom that describes the necessity of physical, concrete evidence in order to accept something as real. It’s how most people live the Continue Reading…
John 6:29 “Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’” “It’s easier to be depressed than to trust.” Have you ever been there? Discouragement takes over, pummels you to the ground and in an instant you’re down for the count. You don’t have Continue Reading…