Imagine we are with a group people hiking in the wilderness. As darkness falls, we realize our group is lost. We know the way home is north, but no one seems to know which way that is! After much disagreement and discussion, a quiet member of the group finally steps forward with a compass. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m going to
In Israel, we have an interesting geographical phenomenon: there are two landlocked seas. One is alive and one is dead. The sea full of life is the Kinneret, better known as the Sea of Galilee. The dead sea is, you guessed it, the Dead Sea. Now the Kinneret is constantly emptying as it flows through the Jordan River valley into the Dead Sea. But
A three-year-old little boy in the doctor’s office tearfully asked why Mommy and Daddy let the doctor give him a painful shot. The parents have the big picture of their son’s health and well-being that his little heart cannot yet grasp. Although the little boy may be confused momentarily, he knows deep inside that Mommy and Daddy still love him. That’s what it’s like
There is a saying of “go big or go home”. My husband uses it a lot when we are doing a project at our house. “The bigger, the better” is his motto. In a similar way, I once heard a particular pastor say “go big and go bold”. While going bigger isn’t always necessarily the right thing to do in every aspect of life,
After nearly completing his first overseas cruise, a young ensign was given an opportunity to display his capabilities at getting the ship under way. With a stream of commands, he had the decks buzzing with men and soon the ship was steaming out the channel en route to the states. His efficiency established a new record for getting a ship under way, so he
Did you know that holiness is the only attribute of God that we find in triplicate in the Bible? In Isaiah, we read in the call of this prophet of God: Holy, holy, holy. And in Revelation, as we read about the worship around the throne, we see again the words; holy, holy, holy. And because God is holy, we are called to be
Wells are used to extract water from the ground below as we all know. Nowadays, there are built-in filters to sift out unwanted particles that could clog the pipe that leads from the water source to the well. But back in Abraham’s time when these wells were built, I’m not so sure. The reason those wells needed to be re-excavated was that over the
In Old Testament times, thirty pieces of silver was the value of a slave accidentally gored to death by an ox. The amount given to the prophet Zechariah is an intentional insult for the rejected shepherd, who was a pre-figure of the Messiah. In a prophetic fulfillment that occurred centuries later, that same sum of thirty pieces of silver was all it took for
When someone paints a masterpiece or makes a beautiful craft, when they write a song or make a piece of art out of what most people would call junk, they are showing their creativity. They make something beautiful out of minor, insignificant things. So which one is the most creative? Actually, none of them. God is. He is more creative than anyone on earth. Creativity is said
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of secular books out there that promise to tell you the secret to success. But you may have heard me say what true, biblical success is. Simply stated, success is being in the middle of God’s plan and purpose for your life. Discover your gift–your passion, who you are, and what God has built into you–then do that with
