The daily stress of 21st century life puts us in a squeeze. Job pressure, time constraints, financial limitations, relationship demands—impossible expectations at every level. Some days we feel like the walls are closing in on us, we’re backed into a corner, we have no room to breathe. I have felt this recently with decisions and deadlines hanging over me. I found a wellspring of encouragement in Psalm 4 as I dug deeper into … 
When you’re walking on the beach and come across an elaborately built sandcastle that took hours to make, what is your first thought after Wow? Too bad it will all wash away when the tide comes in. Some think they can avoid this fate by building beyond the tide line, but either way, its life is short-lived. Sandcastles do not last. Similarly every time you go to a funeral it’s a healthy reminder … 
Today I read about someone who once loved the Lord and served him zealously, but now she has walked away and disowned him. I feel so disheartened. I feel sad and frustrated. How does this happen? How do you change your mind about Jesus? How can you come to a place where you no longer need a Savior? If this were a rare isolated incident I could explain away the anomaly, but it seems … 
How are we going to figure out solutions to the prickly problems we face today? How will we resolve the conflicts that threaten to undo us? How will we get through the maze without giving up at so many dead ends? Questions we’re all asking. Before God created the world and everything in it, he must have had a plan—surely! He knew the Fall was coming. He knew that would leave his … 
Scripture memory seems to be one of those areas in the Christian life which God sometimes needs to goad us to begin. We know we should do it, but often we fail to put in the effort that we know will bring us joy and lead us into deeper fellowship with Him. I feel that God goaded me gently, but through a serious and tension-filled time of life. I had recently learned that … |