Devotionals
The blessing is the most important thing we can give our children. *** My wife and I began having children at way too young an age. We had three children by the time I was 25 years old, including one with special needs (which is like having six children). These decisions (or lack of planning
Twice in the book of Acts, we find a unique description of people selected among the believers in the early church. In Acts 6:5, we meet the man who would ultimately become the first martyr of the early Church, Stephen. Scripture describes Stephen as a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Later in
The nature of the human will is an intriguing dynamic in scripture. It was the free will of man that allowed Adam to choose obedience to God or rebellion and sin. Our free will is part of the risky proposition God implanted in His design of creation. When and if man partnered his own will
In Psalm 51:10, the Psalmist cries out to God, Create in me a clean heart, Oh God! This is a prayer that resonates with those who seek to walk with God and remove the stain of our weaknesses and failures from that journey. The reality of such a prayer grows even more as we realize
A religious mindset perceives prayer as a conspicuously unique activity separated from the rest of life. We close our eyes. We bow our heads. We fold our hands. We kneel. It is an activity rich in ritual. That was not the model that Jesus demonstrated for us throughout the Gospels. Several times we read that
The word heart is mentioned over 770 times in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. The human heart is of critical importance in the design and speaking of God. The heart is the seat of man’s conscious being. It is at the center of who we are and who we will ever be.
Scripture describes people who understand everything about the times they live in except the reality of what God is doing as people with dull hearts. One day we will each stand before God and give account for our lives (Romans 14:12). The Creator of heaven and earth, Lord of hosts, will examine our time on
At the foundation of any worldview is the connection of personal trust to the source upon which we build our lives. The direction and source to which we posture our heart’s trust determines the nature of our lives because a worldview flows from that, and a worldview shapes our lives. There are many different sources
We face a plague of bad news and reports that could easily crush the spirit. This morning I woke to images of the last US soldier to leave Afghanistan and considered what that meant for the people left under Taliban control. The pandemic is raging, and there are reports of the discovery of yet another
For a year and a half, the world has been struggling against the coronavirus. Lockdowns. Vaccines. Facemasks. These words and issues are now pieces of our lexicon that we consider and debate in the new era. In the US, there have been more coronavirus-related deaths than American military deaths in World War I, World War
