God still moves. Sometimes He’s subtle. Sometimes He makes a statement. In Isaiah 36-37, God made a statement. The Assyrian army stood poised to take Jerusalem. Israel had fallen. Judah, under godly King Hezekiah, was next in line. Sennacherib’s field commander recommended surrender. After all, no one had survived Assyria’s onslaught. No god had withstood…

Nick and Joe. Wealthy. Respected. Godly. Sitting together. Outside the city. Like a couple of unwelcome cowboys tossed out of the local saloon. Why? According to Mosaic Law, they were unclean from contact with a dead body. Purification required: Separation “outside the camp” (Numbers 5:2-4) Seven days of uncleanness with purification rites on Days 3…

Workout of the Week: Come When He Calls Memory Verse: “And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” Romans 1:6 NIV Meditation Passage: Romans 1:1-7 Key Thought: Come when He calls. I’m waiting for my new puppy. Our nest is emptying, and I want something more protective than…

Buy-in. When you have it, you can influence. Without it, you get pushback. As our kids grew older, reason became our tool to gain buy-in. Reason, we hoped, would aid compliance. Sometimes it did. Other times, not so much. (Did I mention our kids are really strong-willed?) As I grow older, I find the same thing.…

Now that we’ve survived Thanksgiving and Black Friday, let’s turn our attention to Christmas holiday planning. For years Christmas was not my holiday of choice. Sandwiched between two of my children’s birthdays, Christmas formed the daunting middle miles of a December marathon. Take heart, we can survive December and even enjoy it, but it may…

“But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.” (Daniel 1:8 NIV) Daniel. A teenager. Yanked from home, family, and country of origin. Dropped into the capital city of the enemy. New name. New language. New life.…

Psalms. The Hebrew songbook. David wrote many, and we love the twenty-third psalm. But have you read Psalm 2 lately? Gee whiz. A top forty tune, this isn’t. If you ever wanted a perspective of the sovereignty of God and the world at large, take a look. Psalm 2 Why do the nations conspire and…

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” (Hebrews 10:24 NIV) Samson was uncooperative. He trotted nicely, but when I called for a canter, he just wasn’t interested. Megan, my awesome riding instructor, handed me a short whip and told me to hold it on his shoulder.…

Slavery or submission? That’s our choice. And make no mistake, we are free to choose. Don’t like those choices? Let me flesh it out for you. Scripture makes it clear we will serve someone or something. Two forces contend for our loyalty. One is good. One is not. Check out this verse from Romans, “Don’t…

“Fear is not an emotion. It is an entity.” –Jimmy Evans, pastor of Trinity Fellowship in Amarillo, TX, founder of Marriage Today It was a light bulb moment as I sat at our church’s women’s conference. Jimmy Evans backed up his statement with the following verse, “For God has not given us a spirit of…