HANNAH, A GODLY EXAMPLE OF MOTHERHOOD Hannah was barren. At her family’s annual visit to the Tabernacle at Shiloh to worship and bring offerings, she was so stricken with grief that she could only mouth the words to her prayers. Her lips moved, but no sound came forth. She cried out from her heart that
FAITH AND FAMILY When the nobleman from Capernaum came to Jesus, begging Him to come to heal his dying son, Jesus said, “Go your way, your son lives.” The man believed the word of Jesus and went his way. As he was going, his servants met him saying, “Your son lives!” When he asked the
THE WITNESS OF WORSHIP This is a call to both worship and witness. We might even say that it is a call to the kind of worship that is in itself a witness to the peoples of the world. The psalmist called the people of Israel to begin their worship with thanks to the
REVIVAL WILL TAKE COLLABORATION NOT COMPETITION John the Baptist’s followers worried that more people were following Jesus than John. When John heard them saying this, he rebuked them. He recognized that God determined spiritual results. And he also understood that his ministry was to prepare the way for Christ’s ministry. As John said referring to
MANMADE RELIGION DOES NOT PLEASE GOD What a convoluted story this is! It begins with Micah’s confession that he had taken 1,100 shekels of silver from his mother, who had consequently put a curse on whomever had stolen it. When his mother heard his confession, she blessed him, and told him that she had dedicated
DO YOU SEEK THE SIGNS OR THE SAVIOR? This was the first of seven “signs” that the apostle John recorded in his gospel. John calls them signs and not miracles because signs point to something other than themselves. On a trip a few years ago to see the Grand Canyon, I noticed “Grand Canyon”
A PRAYER FOR ONE OVERWHELMED WITH TROUBLE The inscription above this psalm describes it as a “prayer of one overwhelmed with trouble.” Certainly, there is a need for concrete language to truly capture the condition of such a one. The hurting are in need of words of expression that they might lift up to the
THE ONE WHO CAME AFTER YET LONG BEFORE John the Baptist was born three months before Jesus (see Luke 1:36). So, in that sense, Jesus came “after” John. Yet the Spirit had revealed to John that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, therefore He had existed “long before” John and had preference or
WHAT WAS WRITTEN MUST BE FULFILLED The risen Lord Jesus opened His disciples’ understanding of the Scriptures, so that they might see the necessity of Christ’s suffering and resurrection, in order to fulfill the Scriptures. And not only that, but the necessity that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to
DO YOU REALLY KNOW HOW SOMEONE ELSE FEELS? John Donne wrote that “no man is an island,” illustrating his conviction that we should recognize the unity and commonality of all humanity. Yet, the Proverb teaches that there is within a man that which cannot be fully shared nor understood by another. For the depth of