If you were looking for material for a daytime television drama, you could hardly do better than the story of Jacob and Esau, grandsons of Abraham, the father of faith. It has sibling rivalry, parental partiality and on-going intrigue, all set against a backdrop of wealth and power within the palace walls (if the walls were made of animal skins…).
Recently, a friend and I met for a catch-up lunch. As so often happens, the conversation drifted to events in the lives of our children and grand-children. Soon we were enveloped in the low-frequency melodrama that is modern family life, along with the seeming inability, in many areas, to do much about any of it.
The first casualty of relegating the Old Testament to the back burner of our theology, is the importance and centrality of the Creation account.
Several years ago now, our little neighborhood Bible study piled in our cars and drove an hour to a nearby city. Our destination was a day-long conference led by a woman who for over forty years had been a world-impacting teacher and author of Bible studies.
In the Bible, Romans 8:1 tells us, There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We know this truth fundamentally but sometimes not so much in experience.
A simple truth received is often the “bringer” of God’s miraculous power in the life of anyone!
I was scheduled for an MRI one Monday morning. The nurse asked me two questions: “Do you have any metal parts inside you?” and, “Are you claustrophobic?” I answered “no” to both questions and confidently entered the room where the big drum of a machine was standing ominously in front of me.
I had so much to do that day . . . that week . . . that month . . . that moment! Demands were pressing in on me from everywhere!
My husband and I were trying to find the right place. The jazz concert had been moved to a different venue on campus, so it wasn’t happening here!
Disappointment—that which we experience when expectations or wishes are not met. All of us face numerous disappointments throughout life—someone says something that hurts, a project fails, an illness interrupts plans…
In the first phrase of this verse David prays about his prayers. His desire is that his prayers would be like incense to God.
Open your Bible to the middle and there you find the hymnbook of God—those inspired songs full of praises and prayers. God inspired the psalms for many reasons, but one important reason is to enhance the worship of His people.
A friend and her four-year-old daughter passed by a cemetery where a grave had been freshly dug with a mound of dirt to the side. The daughter said, “Oh look, Mom, someone got out!”
I have friends who like to scuba dive. They put on their equipment and plunge into a different world under the sea. The sea isn’t an environment suited to man naturally. However, with the right equipment, it is possible to breathe and explore fascinating things God has created.
Most of us have seen them—painted performing artists who are creative and entertaining in their perfect stillness—live statues can fool us. Even up close it is difficult to tell whether they are real or not. Children and adults alike are fascinated by their realism.
Rest is essential to bread making. Bread dough needs to rest because we add yeast to it which is a living organism that takes time to rise, rest, and rise again to increase in size.
During the 19th century, personal tragedy led Puritan Hannah Whitall Smith to write several books on suffering.
Boundaries create margin. What is margin?
“I want Jesus!” shouted my three year-old granddaughter from the back seat of my car. Imagine my surprise and delight.
Listening, listening, always listening for the word of the Lord: Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way; walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21). God can and will make my paths straight.
