All in God's Word

When You Feel All Alone

The fire of the LORD fell (18:38). The people proclaimed Yahweh, the self-existent and eternal God, Supreme* (18:39). And as surely as the LORD promised Elijah, the rains poured down (18:45) after three long years. It was evident that Baal had not begun and ended the drought. Surely God’s people would return to their senses.

Clearheaded

Do you have projects that you have started, but stopped?

What made it stop? Confusion? Unclear direction?

When confusion sets in the mind, it can stop a project… bringing it to a screeching halt.

The enemy knows this scheme.

Drawn to the Word

At a young age I was drawn to read the Bible. It wasn’t something I felt I had to do. Reading the Bible was my delight! I owned a translation I could easily understand, and at night I would read and highlight verses. Those verses lingered in my mind, and God gave me opportunities to share them with others. Looking back, I realize the Holy Spirit was drawing me to His Word.

A Good Book

My daughter and I perused the books at a local resale shop. She showed me a book she was interested in buying. It was a volume containing the first two books in a series of four books. Excitedly, I brought her the second volume I had seen which contained the remaining two books in the series.

Bean Soup: Day 1

Several years ago now, our little neighborhood Bible study piled in our cars and drove an hour to a nearby city. Our destination was a day-long conference led by a woman who for over forty years had been a world-impacting teacher and author of Bible studies.

How Then Can We Live…imitate the faithful

Fixing our thoughts on Jesus (3:1), asking WWJD, seeing that HWLF (He would love first), we are moved forward in our thinking by the writer of Hebrews: keep on loving others as long as life lasts. Living a life of love till the end makes sense. It appears though that these Judean believers were losing hope because of all the false teaching and persecution of the time. We too could throw up our hands at the messy theology around us and lose hope of ever seeing our family and friends come to know Jesus.

Remembering God

Although God forbids having or worshipping idols of any kind, he did instruct the Israelites to put tassels on the corners of their garments to remind them of the importance of his commands. The tassels also served as an admonition to obey those same commands.

Risk Takers

Have you ever played the game of Risk? The game can be described in two steps. Step one: build up your army and develop a stronghold. Step two: move forward and conquer, keeping in mind that moving forward involves “risks.”

Just Enough

Cleaning out the refrigerator can be a frustrating endeavor, tossing into the trash those uneaten leftovers or the bag of slimy lettuce or whatever that dried and shriveled thing used to be. Wouldn’t it be so much more cost effective to buy and prepare only the amount of food we needed with never any waste or spoilage?

The Sounds of Silence…revealed by His Spirit

Ladies, put yourselves in the shoes of Jesus’ closest followers in the forty days between resurrection Sunday and His ascension. Think how absolutely amazed on one hand and bewildered on the other you would have felt. He was alive! He was the Messiah as the prophets of old said! There would indeed be a kingdom of God on earth! But He would be leaving—it would be up to you to testify to the world about this kingdom. Oh yes, and I have promised you a gift from the Father; only you must wait for that gift (Acts 1:1-10).

Taught by God

I was desperate. Except it was really more like, “DESPERATE!!!!” My precious treasures were just toddlers.

In my desperation, I had been asking the Lord to be real specific in showing me how to teach my children…how to train them, how to grow their character, and mostly…how to nurture in them a deep love for Jesus. But I was clueless. There was nothing in me that was adequate for the task…and the task was huge, and I felt my children’s very lives hung in the balance! And right there, hearing the cry of my heart, God began to do exactly what our verse says: He taught me.

If

The word “If” is a tiny word with big meaning. In my Bible, it’s near the top of a passage dubbed “The Believer’s Triumph.” Paul used it when he posed what seemed to be a rhetorical question. Paul just explained the amazing gift of salvation God offered through the sacrifice of His Son. He also taught about the role of the Holy Spirit in believers’ lives. He then concluded, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Rather than a question, Paul actually stated a fact! God isfor us, and He proved it by sending His Son and His Holy Spirit.

Running a Good Race: not in vain

Is cross-country skiing on your bucket list by chance? Then the perfect place for you is in Stowe Vermont at the Trapp Family Lodge—yes, the Sound of Music von Trapps settled in Stowe in 1942, having fled Austria in 1938. Need I say—there is an art to cross-country skiing, and the surface of the skis is integral. If you don’t have the proper wax for the snow conditions, or that magic built-in fish scale grip pattern, you are in for a grueling workout. Our fearless leader set a good pace; the rest of us slipped as much back as forward, glad for the summit and the prize—a cookie.