It’s not the years in your life that count but the life in those years—and that life comes from God. There isn’t much more to say about Amaziah. He “turned away from following the Lord” (2 Chron 25:27), and in short order, Judah turned away from following him. “They made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he […]
“Your prayers…have come up for a memorial before God” (Acts 10:4). Some say God only hears “the sinner’s prayer” from unbelievers; Cornelius knew better. Take the story of Johnny who came from Italy to find a better life in America. Day after day he looked for a job. Then someone told him an Italian preacher, […]
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” (Lk 15:4). A blind woman once came to me and said, “Do you think that my blindness will hinder me from […]
“And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Mt 6:13). Whatever does this mean? Is God in the habit of leading us into temptation? Doesn’t Scripture say, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does […]
Sir Robert Anderson, head of Scotland Yard from 1888-1901, was one of England’s premiere legal minds. He tells of his encounter with God after hearing a sermon by a preacher named John Hall. Anderson wrote of being captivated by his message of “forgiveness of sins, and eternal life as God’s gift of grace, unreserved and […]
What can keep the new year from becoming the “same old same old”? How about a handful (that’s 5) new things to unwrap and enjoy for the next 365–or at least until the Shout. […]
“Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us” (Lk 11:3-4). Hmmm…Give us and forgive us. Here are two daily requirements, neither to be taken for granted. One is the recognition that, no matter how well-educated or well-employed we are, not […]
Bertrand Russell, philosopher and mathematician, was the author of Why I am Not a Christian. Katherine Tait, Russell’s daughter, wrote: “I would have liked to convince my father that I had found what he had been looking for, the ineffable something he had longed for all his life. I would have liked to persuade him […]
I often recall my father warning me in my teens, “Without the Lord, you’re no match for the devil.” Unless you know everything, one sure path to failure is listening only to advisors who agree with you. An echo chamber is “an environment where a person only encounters opinions that reflect and reinforce his or […]