So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. John 13:34–35 Before Andrew Jackson became the seventh president of the United States, he served as a […]
Read MoreCategory Archives: Encouragement & Healing
The World and Its Ways
Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from […]
Read MoreLights in a Dark World
Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Philippians 2:15 Wouldn’t it be wonderful if God would save us and then, within a matter of seconds, take us on to glory? Wouldn’t that be a great relief? We would never have any […]
Read MoreA Reason to Go On
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you pure and undefiled, beyond […]
Read MoreHope Beyond Suffering
I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus […]
Read MorePeter’s Failure
At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly, the Lord’s words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And Peter left the courtyard, weeping bitterly. Luke 22:61–62 Hope. It is something as important to us as water is to […]
Read MoreThe Gift of Hope
Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you. Psalm 25:5 Hope is a wonderful gift from God, a source of strength and courage in the face of life’s harshest trials. When we are trapped in a tunnel of […]
Read MoreHope
Can you remember a recent “gray slush” day? Of course you can. So can I. The laws of fairness and justice were displaced by a couple of Murphy’s Laws. Your dream dissolved into a nightmare. High hopes took a hike. Good intentions got lost in a comedy of errors, only this time nobody was laughing. You didn’t soar, you slumped. Instead of “pressing on the upward way,” you felt like telling Bunyan to move over
Read MoreApprehension
The scene is familiar: a hospital lobby with all the trimmings . . . soft sofas and folded newspapers . . . matching carpets and drapes illumined by eerie lighting . . . a uniformed lady at the desk, weary from answering the same questions . . . strange smells . . . and lots of people. Everywhere there are people. A steady stream pours in and out, the faces marked by hurry and worry.
Read MoreBalance, Part One
Two extreme tests exist that disturb our balance in life. Each has its own set of problems. On one side is adversity. Solomon realized this when he wrote: If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength! (Proverbs 24:10 NIV) The Message paraphrases that verse: If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place. Adversity is a good test of our resiliency, our ability to cope, to stand back up, and to recover from misfortune. Adversity is a painful pedagogue.
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