In our last post, we explored some of what it means in John 10 that Christ is the Good Shepherd and we are His sheep. We looked at some traits we have in common with sheep and what they teach us about our relationship with the Lord.There are a couple of other comparisons with our woolly friends we should be able to admit to. In addition to being easily distracted and agitated, we are continually b...  Read More

In the New Testament, we repeatedly see Christ’s compassion for people. Matthew 9: 35-36 tells us: “35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” And Mark 9:3...  Read More

Recently I was reading an article about Babe Ruth, who was arguably the best baseball player to ever play the game. On December 26th, 1919, Babe Ruth signed a contract with the New York Yankees. The contract said that he would be paid the astonishingly high price of $25,000 for the 1919, 1920 and 1921 baseball seasons. It was a memorable day and a memorable event in the history of baseball.The act...  Read More

One of the saddest aspects of life today is that we are finding it harder and harder to recognize the truth. There are so many voices and views out there, many of them contradictory to each other, that it is increasingly difficult to sift through them and to discern which ones actually line up with reality.The task is made harder because many people don’t believe truth exists at all. Others believ...  Read More

One of the most important lessons I have learned in my walk with the Lord is that holding on to an unforgiving attitude can be really harmful! Jesus taught this in the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant in Matthew 18:23-35. Peter had asked Jesus how many times we should forgive others; and from what Jesus told him, the answer may be more important than we think.Jesus told the story of a servant who...  Read More

I have said before that following Christ is a walk of faith and there will certainly be times when we don’t understand why God would have us take the path that He does. There is no greater example in the Scripture than that of Abraham.After many barren years, Abraham and his wife had a son, just as God had promised them. This boy was Abraham’s hope for the future because God had specifically decla...  Read More

There have been times in my life when God hasn’t made total sense when He has either allowed something to happen or said something in His Word that I’ve found difficult to understand. Scripture tells us that we are to walk by faith and not by sight. And I think that those very times when we don’t always see, when His purposes are not plain and all of our questions are not answered presents us with...  Read More

I have discovered that many people try to win God’s favor by what they do. They believe that if they’re a good enough person, then surely the scales will go in their favor and God will judge them worthy of life in His presence. The Scriptures tell us about a person who thought that way before he had a face-to-face conversation with Jesus recorded for us in John 3. His name was Nicodemus; and as a ...  Read More

When we lived in Africa my husband planted a grapevine at the edge of our patio. He hoped the vine would grow up to the roof poles where it would not only produce clusters of delicious grapes but also provide some much-needed shade. The vine did poorly, however; and no matter how carefully we cared for it, it remained more like a weed that never seemed to go anywhere.At that same time, our dog had...  Read More

Growing up I was taught that you must work hard for everything you get in life; and while that is often true, I have come to realize that it is not always so. The Bible clearly tells us that our own good works cannot get us to heaven, but that’s a hard concept for most people to understand.As far back as chapter 11 of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, people were trying to get to heaven by the...  Read More

There have been several times in my life when I’ve stepped out in obedience to the Lord, acting on something I believed He has said to me, only to have things occur that I really wasn’t expecting. And I know I am not alone in that experience. Many of you reading or hearing this have also had your expectations challenged as you’ve stepped out to follow Jesus by faith. And if you are at all like me ...  Read More

Some of the doors God opens are surprising to me. I regularly visit men in a maximum-security prison, where I have the privilege of sharing from God’s Word during chapel meetings. Over the months we’ve developed a friendship as we’ve studied the Word of God together. During a particularly difficult season of my life, following the death of my husband, I shared with them how easy it can be to doubt...  Read More