Imagine stepping out of the ark with Noah after 15 ½ months of shelter from the wrath of God against a world so wicked it had to be destroyed. Would you have felt gratitude for God’s kind and miraculous preservation? Or would you have been traumatized by His severity and fearful of His future judgments? […]
For lovers of great stories, the life of Joseph has it all: intrigue, drama, villains, a hero, unparalleled adversity, astounding success, all iced with an emotional happy ending. But the thought that Joseph is a type of Jesus, the Messiah, is not what strikes the average reader. See if you can find the parallels as […]
Out of the many wonderful things that God created for us during Creation week, perhaps “time” is one of the most overlooked, yet the most fascinating. Consider the following quote from Maimonides, the great Jewish scholar of the 12th century: “Time is an accident consequent upon motion and is necessarily attached to it. Neither of […]
Do you ever stop? Life can sometimes seem like an endless flow of demands on our time and energy. We just keep going, day in and day out, but we long for a way to get off the treadmill. The good news is that God has already provided a way! One of Jesus’ most wonderful […]
Why did Jesus tell so many stories? Let’s begin to find the answer by experiencing a parable ourselves: “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. […]
Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. “Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who […]
“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding.... But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he […]
The Bible contains many stories of traumatic experiences—death, disease, famine, dysfunctional relationships, war, capture, and betrayal. What is trauma? Psychological trauma is an emotional response caused by severely distressing events.1 It’s easy to assume that children of God will never experience traumatic events. Yet the Bible records instances of trauma in every book. But the […]
A life in Christ is a life of restfulness. There may be no ecstasy of feeling, but there should be an abiding, peaceful trust. Your hope is not in yourself; it is in Christ. Your weakness is united to His strength, your ignorance to His wisdom, your frailty to His enduring might. So you are […]
I once had a patient who was blind. He was a remarkable man. I was his doctor, helping him learn how to live in such a way as to reverse his diabetes and obesity. I had advice for his health, but he had inspiration for my soul. You see, he was blind before I took […]