Psalm 139:1 “O Lord, you have searched me and known me!” [ESV] Our daughter Bethany sought to learn Mandarin when she was dating her husband (who is of Asian descent). My friend Theresa wants to learn Spanish so she can better help Spanish-speaking people who apply for mortgage loans at her Continue Reading…
Jude 1:3 “… I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.” Contend for the faith. I can’t get that phrase out of my mind. Jude urged the early church to fight against every smidgen of apostasy. Continue Reading…
Mark 10:9 “Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Grandpa Creech was a great storyteller. The story he most often loved to tell revealed his deep affection for Grandma…. After Grandpa returned home from the army, he was nearing his old homeplace when he spotted a woman Continue Reading…
Matthew 7:11 “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” I was chased today by a mother robin. She sat dutifully on her nest until my Continue Reading…
1 John 2:10-11 “Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness…the darkness has blinded him.” Love is blind. We’ve all heard that expression, right? Well I think hate blinds far more Continue Reading…
1 Corinthians 1:27 “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” Love has a way of breaking down barriers… Take Rick. A teenager from Michigan. Forced by his parents to attend church, he Continue Reading…
Luke 5:8, 10 “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’ Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.’” Without heart-rending, gut-wrenching, fall-on-our-knees conviction of sin we can’t repent. Continue Reading…
Matthew 12:25 “…Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.” Divide and conquer. It’s one of the enemy’s most successful strategies against the human race. It’s intensifying. I can’t remember a time when the fissures have run so deep. Continue Reading…
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Condemn. Condone. Compromise. These seem to be Continue Reading…
1 John 1:6 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” Love without sacrifice is like food without nutrition. No sustenance. No life. Christianity rests on the foundation of sacrificial love. Continue Reading…