Just as Fall and Winter bring the dropping of leaves, leaving the branches to look disheveled and scrawny, Christians can also enter dark periods of their lives. They can feel confused, weak, depressed, discouraged, unenthusiastic, emotionally scrawny and scraggly. I wouldn’t say it’s normal, but every Christian I know has faced times like this. Fortunately, […]
Like Joseph living as a slave in Egypt, Daniel was also exiled to a foreign land 800-900 miles away. Like the young Jewish girl captured by Naaman during the war with Syria, Daniel was a captive of war with Babylonia. Once in Babylon, Daniel was forced to go to school to learn the language and […]
The eighth chapter of Romans contains such important revelation that I chose to paraphrase it. It’s too long of a chapter to include it, but I would recommend having an open Bible next to my paraphrase. PARAPHRASE 8:1-8 – Those who have accepted Jesus will never face God’s wrath and judgment. The Spirit of God […]
God would make a great florist. He designed among flowers a variety of shapes, fragrances, and various colors. He made them fragile enough to be crushed with a boot, yet strong enough to withstand heavy rains and pelting hail. God planted at least three gardens: Garden of Eden – “The Lord God planted a garden […]
Many years ago, I attended Basic Youth Conflicts. A phrase you’d often hear was, “Please Be Patient. God Is Not Finished With Me Yet.” He never stops working to change us to be more like Jesus. And He won’t be done until we see Him face-to-feet. “I am certain that God, who began the good […]
When I was young, I liked TV shows about cowboys. I wore my six guns so often that one of Dad’s friends nicknamed me “Tex” (He called me that until he passed away). If you asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said, “A cowboy.” I liked Gunsmoke, […]
If a person does not believe in God, then is there anyone to whom he gives thanks for a beautiful sunset, a rainbow, a walk in the forest next to a bubbling brook, or his daily meals? “For although they knew God [as Creator], they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, […]
When the Scripture uses the term “darkness,” it most often carries the negative sense of sin. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20) Darkness also describes the situation when the devil has […]
As people awoke that fateful day of the Deluge, most of them thought it just was going to be another average day. Jesus said that in the same way, most people will be oblivious to His return. “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son […]
We first encounter Gideon in Judges 6, attempting to hide his harvest from the Midianites by threshing it in the recesses of a winepress. Because of Israel’s rebellion, God had allowed the Midianites to ravage their harvests and herds for seven years. Now God was ready to break Midian’s yoke and to use Gideon to […]