Division. It was tearing us apart again.
Are you concerned over division in your country, city, or neighborhood?
Division in the world, although sad, is more understandable.
But what about division in your own home or church?
Maybe even division in your own heart?
At times, I am too hard on myself.
I focus on all my failures. I can make a long list in my mind.
While focusing on the lies, I forget the truth.
Have you read a note to yourself from the past and later… it spoke to you in a new way?
This happens to me sometimes.
As I write to encourage others, months later the same message has a new meaning to me.
Some days it seems everything goes… wrong.
Does this ever happen to you?
No matter what I try, nothing works out right.
Recently on a day like that, Jesus brought this Scripture to my attention:
I quietly shut the door behind me. I needed to be alone… to pray.
My heart was hurting from a difficult conversation.
I needed to process.
What had just happened?
Friends, “churchy” talk is easy; but having the courage to live as a Disciple of Christ requires careful examination of one’s lifestyle.
“Don’t blink,” cautioned the technician at the ophthalmologist’s office, all the while flashing a light directly in my eyes, making it almost impossible not to blink. I could not stop thinking, “Just how much longer will this misery last?”
Psalm 46, possibly written by Hezekiah, is a song about God’s deliverance of His people from Assyria. However, it is actually a timely psalm to read today.
Unusually tired after hosting a three-day family visit, I was frustrated for not having the energy to zoom through my usual Monday chores. And then I began to realize the visits with my grandchildren seem to tire me more than when I was younger—even though it is a “good tired.”
In the understanding of many, we enter the Kingdom of God only when we enter Heaven.
However, the Bible teaches Christ followers that Jesus sent us out to proclaim the kingdom of God in the world NOW.
In some cities it is quite popular to visit graveyards and go on spooky tours. The city of
New Orleans has thousands of tourists that pay to go through their cemeteries to hear
stories of the past, admire the tomb’s architectural elements, and seek the suspense of
getting spooked while there.
It was common in those days to have village rivalry, so Nathanael’s skeptical attitude
toward Jesus would not be a surprising response. Important or famous people did not
come from small villages.
Throughout Jesus' ministry we find Him surrounded by some of his closest friends. One
of his closest friends was Simon Peter. Throughout the gospels we see how Peter was
a witness to many miraculous things Jesus did.
Some of the best movies are the ones that get you to feel intense emotions. While in the
midst of the climactic scene, tears are strolling down our face, because deep inside of
us we can sympathize with what the character is going through.
“The doctor found a suspicious spot; he would like for you to come in and have another
scan,” the voice said over the phone. I stood there stunned for a second. Did I hear that
right? Could it really be something?
The pages of Amos are filled with sorrow—this lament I take up concerning you: “Fallen is virgin Israel, never to rise again” (5:2). The visions the LORD gives his prophet are too great to bear.
Ah, the key verse of Amos makes its way to the surface: justice and righteousness, rolling on like a river, a never-failing stream. As Peterson (MSG) puts it, “That’s what I want. That’s all I want” says the Lord.
Rhetoric: “the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech” (online Oxford Languages). Amos is variously praised in the commentaries for his gifted writing. I was intrigued.
Spring had sprung and my garden was sorely in need. Grabbing my gardening gloves and clippers and long-handled pruning shears, I headed for the yard. I trimmed and chopped and wrestled with all that dead wood, keeping a sharp eye out for the tender new growth—such tedious, nit-picking work.
The LORD God Almighty was not the least bit happy with the state of affairs in the Promised Land. Oh, it was not just His people—sin was rampant in all the bordering nations of Israel.
