Accepting God’s Providence

We all live in historic times. Often, the significance of daily events flows over us. That is, we easily dismiss the seemingly usual course of affairs as “ordinary times,” yet later historians will mark many of our events as significant elements of the changes we are living through, creating a new era which will affect…

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The Anger of the LORD for the Sins of His People (Lamentations 2)

Our brief study of “The Lamentations of Jeremiah” continues today in Lamentations 2. The mention of “Zion” throughout this chapter is Jerusalem.1 The people of Jerusalem boasted, “The Temple of the LORD, The Temple of the LORD” (Jeremiah 7:4), and believed the LORD would not permit the heathen to enter the city and defile His…

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Backsliding: Last words on the matter

Editor’s note: A few weeks ago, on March 14, we published an article by George Stiekes called, “Do We Still Believe in Backsliding?” He sent that out as a devotional on March 11 and I was moved to repost it. Bro. Stiekes has been a friend since he pastored in Washington state some years ago.…

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Hard Isn’t Bad, or Is It?

How often do we use the argument “hard isn’t bad!” when facing a challenging situation? Our children struggle with their schoolwork, or chores, or an intense sports game, and we encourage them by saying that this challenge will help them improve. Our friends face a hard decision in life, and we remind them that it’s…

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The Faithful Heart of Mary

The Evangelist Luke tells us that after the visit of the shepherds to the infant Jesus and their report of the angelic messengers, Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. We may take the comment as a historian’s citation of his source. It is possible that the Evangelist met Mary and…

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An Overview of the Book of James

The Book of James may be one of the most needful encouragements and exhortations to believers in our day. Of course, every book of the Bible seems that way when you’re teaching through it verse by verse. That’s because every part of the Bible is supremely powerful to address us according to what’s most needed…

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Most People Really Do Believe in God

Even if they don’t want to say so. Yesterday’s post from Forrest McPhail, “Sending You Good Vibes,” brought this to mind. The way I hear or see that idea is often in this form: “thoughts and prayers,” or sometimes just “thoughts are with you,” as if one would think the individual has the mental power…

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A Living Faith That Overcomes the Temptation of Disgust

This part 3 of a 5-part series. For previous posts, click the following: part 1; part 2. I went almost ten years without a correct diagnosis regarding what exact muscle disease I had. Honestly, the muscle disease itself wasn’t the hardest trial. The hardest trials were the effects of the muscle disease: not being wanted…

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