How do we receive God’s forgiveness when we have royally blown it? Let’s look at the life of David and Psalm 32 to discover some principles. David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, a married woman. He had plotted and had fulfilled his plan to have her husband, Uriah, killed. He had lived with this deception while appearing to be righteous. How did all this unconfessed sin affect David? Psalm 32:3, 4 reveals: David was not at peace. He felt God’s…..
Peter failed “big time.” His best friend and teacher, Jesus was on trial. Though Jesus had done nothing wrong, His enemies were determine to kill Him (Matthew 26:57-75). While Jesus was literally on trial for His life, Peter denied that he even knew Him. Not once, but three times! Peter failed. We all do. It’s what we do after we fail that is important. Peter showed his real heart after he realized what he had done. He wept bitterly. He…..
Psalm 19:1-6 Psalm 19 begins with, “The heavens declare the glory of God …There is no speech, nor words, yet their voice goes out through all the earth.” (KJV/RSV) What are the heavens trying to tell us? I think as we look at the heavens, we will realize they are declaring a number of things about God. The heavens show us that God has a great creative imagination. Who else could conceive of millions of galaxies, suns, moons, planets, stars,…..
How high are the heavens above the earth? We can see the sky. We can see the stars at night. But how high are the heavens above what we can see? Scientists say that the heavens are forty six billion light years higher than the earth. They go on beyond our comprehension! They are so high, that humans cannot possibly see everything in them. Psalm 103: 11 states that God’s covenantal love towards those who respect, love, and follow Him…..
God absolutely loves each of us just as we are. Yet, He loves us so very much, He doesn’t’ want us to remain just as we are. Why not? The sins, addictions, strongholds and even some attitudes hurt us and others. They distort us from the person we were meant to be, created in God’s image. They also cause us to hurt others, also created in God’s image. Dr. Michael Brown gave the analogy of arriving at a hospital in…..
I was afraid. I had to be in contact again with a very evil person. I did not want to have anything to do with him, but a funeral was throwing us together. We both had a part in it, so I knew we would have to communicate. My husband couldn’t attend, for he had to work. I felt very alone and vulnerable. What should I do? How should I handle it? I talked to a godly man about it,…..
Have you ever raised chickens? I haven’t, but my mother did. She liked to tell this story about their little hen. This tiny hen was a terrific mother, so they kept her to raise frying chickens. They would quietly gather her eggs and then replace them with some eggs producing fledglings of a much larger variety. The mother raised the baby chickens as her own. She was very protective of them – even when they were “gangly teenage” roosters who…..
Have you ever said, “No,” when you should have said, “Yes.” I did. I, who normally tried to be so obedient, said, “No.” And, it was not to just anyone; it was to God! All He did was ask me to slow down; to lessen my activities. I looked up to heaven and said, “No.” Did I suffered the consequences! I got mononucleosis. God didn’t zap me out of revenge. He knew my body was getting tired. He knew I…..
Its leaves rustled gently in the early morning light, beckoning people to come to it. Jesus came looking for figs for breakfast. He found none. Not one single fig. He cursed the tree. It withered and died. Why did Jesus curse the tree? Was He some angry, retaliatory God-man punishing a tree for false advertising? After all, the leaves indicated it had figs! No, that is not who Jesus was nor who He is. He had a far greater purpose in…..
What do you do when life throws you a curve ball; when the unexpected happens? If it’s not too drastic, you can probably adjust to it fairly easily. Yet what if it is decidedly different than you had anticipated? Jesus’s disciples had this experience. Once they knew for certain that He was God’s promised Messiah, Jesus began to tell them what the future held for Him. He told them they would go to Jerusalem, He would suffer many things from…..