Depression is a cruel and unfair player. It singles us out at inconvenient times and is unconcerned about our commitments or schedules. Nor is it a respecter of persons. Many of God’s great warriors fought attacks of depression. The prophet Elijah despaired to the point of praying “Lord, take my life!” The apostle Paul was often overwhelmed, making it necessary for the Lord to speak to him in a night ...
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I don’t know about you, but if I fail to grab a bite to eat in the morning, my whole system seems to run a little off. For good reason, breakfast has been called the most important meal of the day. We need to eat right to go about our business with vigor.
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If the Gospel offer of salvation were not all of grace, I would be the first to abandon such an invitation, but that has never been the case. My dear brother or sister, before Jesus Christ rescued you, how lost and godless were you? Like me, the answer is to the uttermost! We were dead in our sins and wayward trespasses, wholly alienated from God until the Holy Spirit awakened ...
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Our lives are as living billboards—signs and testimonies of the presence of Christ and a beautiful display of His lordship. But for this to happen, there must be a starting point. In his classic book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer states that by grace, we are saved, and when grace is acted upon, we’re brought into the family of God. But Bonhoeffer warns that though God’s grace may be free to ...
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With every fresh new year, it is natural to desire better things, especially when the past has been filled with pressure. It is to the confused, heartbroken, weary, and exhausted that Jesus’ promise of rest sounds sweetest of all. To them, Jesus bids, “Come to Me.”
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Something had to be done about those making a difference for the Lord, and for Peter, that meant jail. The Roman Empire was losing its grip, not so much on nations they had conquered or the vast wealth and power they had accumulated, but on the hearts and minds of men. When the message of Jesus Christ came to Rome, it didn’t shake the pillars of the senate or crack ...
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What if you could know the day of your death? Would it be a good thing? The psalmist’s request, “teach us to number our days,” shows that only the Lord knows the number of days given to us in this life. It’s strange to think that today brings us one day closer to the day He has appointed us to enter eternity.
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There are some things in life you can only read about. The scripture above is one of them. A bush was ablaze with flames all around, yet not consumed. Our imaginations can scarcely conceive such a fantastic yet terrifying sight. But Moses was undeterred and discovered it was the glory of the Lord burning bright. God spoke to him there, and passion was ignited.
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“Eat your vegetables,” was a familiar command of my mother. She might as well have said, “take a bath,” or some other edict that no ten-year-old boy wanted to hear. Both instructions were for my benefit, but I had other things in mind. Fast forward to my years of parenting, and I found myself issuing similar decrees with the same response from my children as I once had. It’s not ...
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What an incredible picture of Satan and Jesus petitioning the Father for the same man. One with malicious intent to destroy him, the other standing as his Intercessor. The request to sift Peter as wheat is unparalleled in the New Testament—his adversary asked to shred him, literally!
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