Father, Glorify Your Name!

Is your soul weary or troubled?  Are you in the midst of or approaching a difficult journey and don’t know how to go on?  Does your heart want to cry “Save me from this trial!”?  Well, I have encouraging news for you, you are not alone!  Our Savior, Jesus Christ the perfect Son of God, also faced heartache and unrest on the journey to the cross.  In John chapter twelve, we get a glimpse of His inner turmoil and how He managed to continue on the road placed before Him.  So let’s study and learn from our Lord’s perfect example.

Let Us Remember

Today is a day of remembrance and reflection for our country.  A time to remember lives lost, sacrifices made, and a war begun.   On this day, fourteen years ago, terror struck America as three hijacked planes hurled into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  The attackers’ objective:  terrorize the most powerful nation in the world and bring fear and devastation.  They accomplished their mission and ignited the War on Terror.  Since that fateful day in 2001, there have been many other terrorist attacks in America and around the world where innocent people have lost their lives and military personnel have sacrificed theirs.

Refiner and Purifier of Silver

Author Unknown

"He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." 

- Malachi 3:3 -

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. 

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

Be Still and Know that I AM God

“Then the LORD said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.  But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.’”

-Genesis 15:13-14-

While God was making His covenant with Abraham, He told Abraham that his descendants, the Israelites, would be sojourners in a foreign land and that they would be afflicted for four hundred years.  Now this is not something I would want God to tell me, would you?!  But as always there’s a promise,

God's Dynamite

“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”    - II Corinthians 12:10

Streams in the Desert records A. P. Simpson’s literal translation of this verse as “Therefore I take pleasure in being without strength, in insults, in being pinched, in being chased about, in being cooped up in a corner for Christ’s sake; for when I am without strength, then am I dynamite.” 

The Fragility of Life

“For the LORD is NEAR to the broken hearted, 
and SAVES those crushed in spirit.” 

- Psalm 34:18

Life is so fragile, and the world is utterly brutal; like a delicate flower exposed to the harsh elements. However, we have a tender, loving Gardner who knows the limit of each uniquely created flower, and He will not let it be exposed to more that it can handle. His desire is that every single creation He has intentionally placed in His garden would become beautiful, fruitful, and strong; secure in the knowledge that its faithful Creator will provide for all its needs and fully trusting through the painful moments that the Divine Pruner knows what He’s doing.