There are lessons that we can learn from flowers by way of comparison (i.e., the providence of God, the brevity of life, etc.), then there are lessons we can learn from them by way of contrast. “All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the…

Have you ever planted flowers?  Why is it that a few weeks later you had to go back to the floral nursery to buy more?  Well, it may be because you have a black thumb, but more likely it is because flowers have a very short life span. It is this very point that Job had in mind when he illustrated life’s…

For some reason, mankind’s tendency is to worry about things much more than he should (worrying at all is worrying more than we should).  Yet, something as simple and beautiful as a flower teaches us a much needed and profound lesson.  “So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;…

When I got married, I was intrigued by how much more Traci knew and liked the love story of Jacob and Rachel than I ever had.  Then it hit me—the stories of the Bible are so diverse that everyone can find stories that may appeal more to them than to others.  There are stories (like Jacob and Rachel) that girls really love. …

So-called “modern-day healers” should be embarrassed.  While many of them claim to be exercising “power given to them by God,” their feeble efforts are anything but of divine origin.  Consider the following statements regarding the effective working of the miracles of Jesus: From the book of Mark only:  “immediately the fever left her” (1:31); “immediately the leprosy left him” (1:42); “Immediately he…

“Stupid” is in the category of “bad words” at our house.  We don’t say it (except when Daddy said it in Soldiers of Christ one night about the children of Israel…oops!), and we don’t like it when others say it.  But, take note, that God called a certain group of people “stupid.” In Proverbs 12:1, God says that “whoever loves discipline loves…

Paul looked at his life with only one goal in mind—bearing fruit.  And he recognized the direct correlation between bearing fruit and labor—fruit will not come without labor; the intensity level, dedication level and patience level of the labor will have an obvious bearing on the fruit level. Consider your labor for the Lord.  Then, consider the fruit that has resulted.  Is…

Can you imagine being one of the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18?  You just spent an entire day calling out to Baal to send fire down on your bull.  When that “didn’t work,” you leaped about the altar you made, cried aloud, cut yourself until blood gushed out and continued to call out to Baal all day.  You did this…