After the exiles had returned to Jerusalem and the wall had been rebuilt, Nehemiah told the people to feast and celebrate. He said, “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). The Good News Translation renders this verse, “The joy that the Lord gives you will make you strong.” The passage isn’t simply about our joy in God but about the way God imparts His joy to us. Note the jubilant enthusiasm of God when He says of... Read more
“An overwhelming majority of Americans continue to believe that there is life after death and that heaven and hell exist,” according to a Barna Research Group poll. But what people actually believe about Heaven and Hell varies widely. A Barna spokesman said, “They’re cutting and pasting religious views from a variety of different sources—television, movies, conversations with their friends.” The result is a highly subjective theology of the afterlife, disconnected from the biblical doctrine of Heaven. Our Radar Is Aimed... Read more
There are vast numbers of biblical manuscript copies (non-originals) in existence today. Not surprisingly, given the long labors of thousands of scribes, there are variations in them. Mistakes happen today even when we have built in spell-checkers and teams of trained people combing through manuscripts searching for errors. (As an example, I remember a time we found a missing comma in one of my books, which actually changed the meaning of the sentence. It was corrected in the next printing.)... Read more
In her journal she kept during her cancer years, Nanci quoted Charles Spurgeon: Oh, that we may know our God—His power, His faithfulness, His immutable love. He is one whose character excites our enthusiasm. Oh, that we may know our God by familiar fellowship with Him. He who comes out fresh from beholding the face of God will never fear. Later she wrote her own reflections: My deepened relationship with God after experiencing difficulties in life—most recently, cancer—can be illustrated... Read more
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, they must deny themselves, and take up their cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for My sake, they are the ones who will save it. For what is anyone profited if they gain the whole world, and lose or forfeit themselves?” (Luke 9:23-25) This is arguably the single greatest—and hardest—passage on self-denial... Read more
Scripture says Christ gave “himself as a ransom for all people” (1 Timothy 2:6, NIV). We “were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19). Like many biblical terms, such as hope, love, and joy, we have to define what Scripture means by ransom. In most people’s understanding, ransoms are paid by good people, but... Read more
In God’s common grace, He shares insights even with those who don’t know or trust Him. For example, Oscar Wilde was not a good role model (to say the least). But he spoke these amazingly true words that I have seen confirmed in my life, and Nanci’s, and in the lives of many others: “It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” Sending Our Roots Deep Every... Read more
God tells us that trials in which evil and suffering come upon us “have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7). God refines us in our suffering and graciously explains why: “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own... Read more
Ever been to a football game at half time when the band forms words or pictures in the middle of the field? They look great from up in the stands. But have you ever thought about what they look like from the sidelines? Pointless, confusing, apparently meaningless. We see life from the sidelines. God sees it from the stands. As we gain perspective, we leave the sidelines and start working our way up. God’s Higher Perspective Isaiah 55:8 says,... Read more
We received this thought-provoking letter from a reader named Richard Higby. As you read, consider what it might look like for your family and church to implement his idea of a day celebrating and looking forward to Christ’s return and the coming New Earth. In my book Happiness, I write about how the observances of Christ’s birth and resurrection have been commandeered by our culture and distanced from their true biblical and historical meanings. Rather than abandon these holidays, we can... Read more
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