All of us need encouragement. We need somebody to believe in us. To reassure and reinforce us. To help us pick up the pieces and go on. To fuel our flame of determination as we face the odds against us. I don’t care how influential, secure, or mature a person may appear to be, an […]
Read MoreCategory Archives: Encouragement & Healing
Does God Care about Our Suffering?
Agonizing in prayer over a difficult leader who was causing conflict in my church, I asked God to remove him and to protect my family and me. As senior pastor, I became the target for a few disgruntled people that this man had secretly poisoned against me. Eventually they demanded my resignation, threatening to disrupt […]
Read MoreDaily Tests
Mrs. Moses’s cookbook surely had a special section on “A Thousand-and-One Ways to Fix Manna.” Unless I miss my guess, she had tried them all . . . many times. What potatoes are to Ireland, apples are to Somerset, cod is to Grimsby, and porridge is to Scotland, manna was to the wandering Hebrews for […]
Read MoreThink Theologically, Not Logically
I confess to you, at times I doubt God’s purpose and promise. I say that to my own embarrassment. When things haven’t worked as I thought they would, when I received a no instead of a yes or a yes instead of a no, when I couldn’t unravel a situation and fit it with the […]
Read MoreWhy God Shakes Your Spiritual Tightrope
I can already tell the year 2014 will require me to have the skill of a tightrope walker to stay balanced. If you’re like me, sometimes it seems we barely keep steady on our spiritual tightrope . . . and then something—or someone—shakes the rope! Believe it or not, that someone shaking our rope is […]
Read MoreSanctity of Life
Just how widespread is the practice of abortion? Are we making much ado about nothing, or do we have a full-scale issue deserving of our immediate attention? To begin with, let’s understand that medical authorities determine a person to be “alive” if there is either a detectable heartbeat or brain-wave activity. With that in mind, […]
Read MoreThe Benefits of Breakdowns
Who would’ve ever guessed it? Out of the blue came this nobody. He had spent his years away from the crowded streets of the city, working for his father in the quiet yet rugged outdoors. Had someone asked anybody in his day if they had ever heard of him, a blank stare and a quick […]
Read MoreThe Gift for the Person Who Has Everything
In our pocket of society where pampered affluence is rampant, we are often at a loss to know what kind of gifts to buy our friends and loved ones on special occasions. For some people (especially those who “have everything”), the standard gift won’t cut it. Nothing in the shopping mall catches our fancy. I […]
Read MoreWhen Hope Returns
Hope is a buoyancy word. It takes a tsunami-like surge to keep it submerged. It’s difficult, I know, to hold on to the life preserver of hope when storms rage in your life, but let me encourage you to tighten your grip. Perhaps this poem, “When Hope Returns”, will help. Despair, oh despair, you’ve taken […]
Read MoreThe Source of Hope and Strength
What happens when the bottom drops out of your life? When you experience a great calamity like the loss of your home through a fire or a flood? Or suffer through an unwanted divorce, or worse, the death of a loved one who meant the world to you? What happens when you must undergo lingering, […]
Read More