God is good. Period. End of sentence. Everything that we know about God and everything that God is grows out of His goodness. If God is not good, God is not God. Continue reading
And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great. (Job 2:13)
When dealing with a friend that is grieving over devastating loss, sometimes the best thing to say is nothing and the best thing to do is just being there. Continue reading
A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth. (Proverbs 14:6)
Because of his prejudices and preconceived notions, a scorner cannot know the truth. Like the Pharisees of the New Testament, he’s not really after it. Rather than looking for the Lord, he’s looking for loopholes and reasons to mock and to question the truth. However, that inability to see God’s truth is not limited to scorners. Many well-meaning truth-seekers have a similar problem because they too bring prejudices and preconceived notions to the table. They have too much junk in the way. Continue reading
Daniel 3
(17) If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us…
(18) But if not, …we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
Daniel 3 records for us a pivotal moment in the lives of three young men who made a choice to stand up to peer pressure, bullying, and persecution. Even with death staring them in the face, these men stood because they’d already made up their minds about whom they would serve and why.
The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD. (Proverbs 16:1)
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits. (Proverbs 16:2)
Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established. (Proverbs 16:3)
Remember math? Remember the really hard math classes? I remember how in some of my math classes the back of the book would sometimes have the answers to every other equation. I also remember how sometimes taking a peek at the correct answers helped me figure out the formula I needed to use to get to the right answer and how that helped me figure out the equations where the book didn’t give the solution. Most of life is like that: lots of problems without the solutions written out. Thankfully, God has given us His answer key in the form of His Word. So now the question is: How do we make our lives look like Proverbs 16:1? Continue reading
And they set the ark of God upon a new cart…. (2 Samuel 6:3a)
David’s heart was in the right place. He wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. So, he put the Ark on a new cart, purpose-built for the sacred duty of moving it to its proper home. It was a huge affair. For the occasion, David called in thirty thousand of his choicest men, and like the Philistines had done before them (1 Samuel 6), the people of David manhandled the Ark and put in on the cart. Continue reading
When you read John’s account of the throne of Christ and compare that to passages like Ezekiel 1:26-28 you come away understanding that the Lord’s throne is not a place of peace and comfort. It is full of activity and glory – and a place that evokes fear. Continue reading
Sometimes we literally have to ask ourselves, “Where does my dependence lie? The Christian answer, of course, is to say, “My dependence is on God,” but is it really? Continue reading
For a lot of years instead of my personal walk with God being like a river growing deeper and wider with each passing day, it was more like a stagnant pond that was gradually drying up under the heat of the sun. Thankfully, the goodness of God leads us all to repentance and by His grace I learned again what it is to truly walk with Him. Continue reading
Conflict is a fact of life. You don’t even have to leave your house to find it. You can find conflict in the convenience of your own home! You can even take it on the go. Conflict is anywhere you can find sinners – and they’re everywhere. Thankfully, the solution to conflict is as easy to find as conflict itself. Scripture is full of counsel and examples on how to deal with it. Not surprisingly, biblical conflict resolution is a lot like God Himself: It’s about winning hearts, not winning arguments. Continue reading
