With all the rain we’ve had in the last two days, there are “miniature lakes” in the swales along the interstate.  While driving this morning, I saw a guy (a true South Floridian!) with his fishing line dropped in one of these temporary ponds.  My first thought was, “What a dummy!  What does he possibly think he’s going to catch in there?” …

A four-year-old was talking to some friends (true story!), when she learned that her friend’s dad was a “preacher.”  “A preacher?  What’s a preacher?” she asked. “A preacher is someone who teaches people about Jesus,” her friend responded.  It was obvious that this four-year-old had heard two words that day that she had never heard before—one was “preacher.”  The other was revealed…

Paul expressed his deep concern for the faith of his brethren in Thessalonica, knowing that they were going to suffer tribulation and being troubled that “by some means the tempter had tempted” them (1 Thess. 3:4-5).  Twice in those first five verses of chapter three, Paul wrote, “when we could no longer endure it…when I could no longer endure it,” he sent…

When the 450 prophets of Baal were unable to “convince” their god to answer their continued pleas, the Bible says that “Elijah mocked them” (1 Kings 18:27).  One of the “possibilities” that Elijah proposed regarding Baal was, “perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.”  Can you imagine serving a god who needed to be awakened, like some old man taking a…

It’s a subject and even an individual that we often avoid, but it is one that God speaks of specifically and frequently (at least 50 times in the book of Proverbs alone). “All the brothers of the poor hate him…hated even by his own neighbor…how much more do his friends go far from him” (Prov. 19:7; 14:20).  “He who oppresses [or mocks]…

Nearly every Christian, at some point, has probably “become weary and discouraged.”  Due to the relentless efforts of Satan (1 Pet. 5:8), the cares of this world (Luke 8:14) and the enslaving nature of sin (Jn. 8:34), a follower of Christ can sometimes grow fainthearted.  What can we do? God tells you, “lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls,” to…

Joseph’s brothers took his “tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood.  Then…they brought it to their father and said, ‘We have found this.  Do you know whether it is your son’s tunic or not?’”  Well, they didn’t TELL him a lie!  Did they? Jacob “recognized it and said, ‘It is my son’s tunic.  A wild…

God warned His people in the Old Testament, “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God” (Deut. 8:11).  Honestly, how could they possibly forget God?  The Lord gave the following signs: “when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your…