Six Steps Away From Blessing
Everything’s Falling Apart!
Strength for Today; Bright Hope for Tomorrow
The Art of Spear Throwing
Nothing is Impossible with God!
Hear and Obey
God listens when His children cry out to Him.
God is stirred to action when we say "only He will do." If your life is in disorder, perhaps God has allowed it to draw you closer to Him. If people knew what it meant to be God's favorite, many would not want to be His favorite. God tests, tries, and refines His favorites with pain, suffering, loss, and heartbreak. God teaches His favorite children to rejoice in sufferings. God uses trials to draw His favorite children closer to Him. If your life is like Hannah's, it may seem like God is the cause of your pain, and you might want to run from God, but you need to fight that urge and draw close to God and refuse to let go.
New Dark Ages
We live in an A-literate culture; a culture where people can read but don't. We are entering, according to Neil Postman, a new Dark Age--a time when people didn't read. An age where manners and morals were at their lowest level. It was a cruel, demoralizing, perverted time in human history—and we are not too far from it again.
Proverbs 1 - Seven Characters
In Proverbs 1 Solomon introduces three main themes: Knowledge, Wisdom, and Correction. These three will then become the framework for the whole book of Proverbs as well as define and shape four primary characters.
French Parenting
While, like every other nation, France has its fair share of flaws, there is one aspect of its culture that rises above others: the obedience of French children. How do they get them to be so well-behaved? Let’s explore the topic and find out!
Castles in the Air
So many of God’s children wait for perfect or better conditions to walk by faith. However, we are called to seek sanctification in the state in which God has placed us, rather than building castles in the air - wishing for great possible virtue in positions we do not fill.
Broken Bondage
Have you ever wanted something so desperately that it didn’t bring fulfillment when you finally got it? This faded glory or dissatisfaction is one way to determine whether you are idolizing it. Idols might bring temporary pleasure, but once they have your heart, they keep you in bondage - a bondage we must break in order to be free.
Denied Power, Part 2
The majority of the students and leadership simply did not know Christ as their Savior. They had a form of godliness, but they lacked the power of God in their lives—until something happened that none of us would ever forget.
Denied Power, Part 1
I will never forget the time when I was asked to speak to a group of Asian college students. The fact that I was not who they were expecting didn’t help what was about to become a difficult situation.
Rise and Build
It’s one thing to talk about God’s favor and another to experience it. Nehemiah knew that once people started working and experiencing the favor of God for themselves, momentum would become spontaneous. In fact, in Nehemiah chapter 3 we have seven occurrences of spontaneous work that results in this unprecedented accomplishment.
Two-Way Conversation
Psalm 119 is a beautiful depiction of the love that God's children should have for His Word. This Psalm makes it clear that reading and meditating on God's Word has joyous results! Despite any trials you are facing, make certain to be a Word-centered person, taking delight from the Word of God.
Territorial Tyrants
Are you overcome by illness? Does pain or sickness dominate your life and rob you of joy? As a young adult I was sick for thirteen years. . . My illness controlled my life, and I went through bouts of depression and self-pity, yet I never resigned myself to being useless. I wanted to be healed!
Tasting the Miracles
When Jesus turned water into wine at Cana, there was more going on than meets the eye. A closer look at John 2 reveals that the clay pots that Jesus had the servants fill with water were not wine pots—they were water purification pots.
Freedom in Surrender
The Lord has a reason for allowing you to go through this. It may be preparation for something far greater and far harder in the future. These are definitely the last days and for Christians it’s going to get far worse. But understand this, that in the last days there will come perilous times.
The Little Screaming Machine
I admit it. I’m writing out of exasperation! For the last two hours on this plane, a little girl has been screaming continuously. No, it’s not because her ears are hurting. She takes a gasp of air, looks up at me and smiles, only to look back at her caregivers as they hand her back and forth and start screaming again. And all three caregivers have headphones on!
The Raven of Wrath
Last night I went to bed and began to think about a conflict that was still brewing in my heart. Before long I noticed that my body temperature began to rise. The more I thought about the offense the hotter and more bothered I became.