According to legend, the monarch of a certain country died, leaving behind twin sons. The royal advisers had to decide which of the boys would become the next king. So they watched the infants when they were asleep. One twin slept with clenched fists, but the other slept with his fists open. A wise adviser said, “Let the twin with the open hand become
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life. Psalm 138:7 Walk in the midst of trouble. God didn’t say that He would spare us from all trouble and that life would be easy after we were born again. To be in the midst of something means to be in the middle or center of it. Basically, right in the thick of
Growing up, one of my favorite Saturday activities was watching ABC Wide World of Sports. I can still remember the opening line: The thrill of victory or the agony of defeat! One of the greatest prophets of the Bible, Elijah, experienced his share of victories, but he also knew that sudden feeling of defeat. If you recall, Elijah was on Mount Carmel, the only
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
