Man Up!
One of my favorite Bible verses for men is found in the book of Job. In Job 3:8 God said to Job, “Now gird up your loins like a man….” Put in today’s vernacular, God was saying “MAN UP!” I asked a group of men at a Bible Study, “If God came to you and said ‘Man Up’...
I’ve Already Heard That!
One day I was teaching a Sunday School class of elementary kids and one little boy complained, “I’ve already heard this story!” So, did I stop there and come up with another lesson? NO! Some things you need to hear more than once to get it down in your heart and not...
Grow
What are the only recorded ages of Jesus found in the Bible? 12 and 30. At the age of 12 we find Jesus in the temple talking with the elders and Pharisees and astounding them with his wisdom (Luke 2:42). In Luke 3:23 the Bible tells us that Jesus was about 30 years...
An Encouraging Word
One Sunday morning in church an African-American lady sat down on the row in front of me with her two teenage daughters and preteen son. I had never met this family in the church before and did not know if they were regular attenders or not. During the “get...
Push Through and Do It Anyway!
Several years ago part of my morning routine was to take a two-mile jog each morning. I did it as a form of exercise and for health reasons. I was talking to a friend about my exercise routine and explained to him that some mornings I jogged while other mornings I...
Come Up Here!
My son and I were walking on a concrete pathway along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. After hiking along the path for about a mile or so we decided to head back. On our way back I noticed that we were now going “uphill.” When we began our hike, I hadn’t even...
Joy in the Journey
Life isn’t always about destination... sometimes it’s just as much about “the journey.” When my kids were little we lived a short distance from a creek that ran through the woods. Every once in a while my kids would say to me, “Daddy, let’s go on a ‘venture’” (they...
The Tempered Strength of God
When my kids were preschool age I used to wrestle with them on our living room floor. Every once in a while I would “pin them” to the floor just to remind them that I was “the boss,” but most of the time I would let them beat me so they could know the thrill of...
The First Order of Creation
Have you discovered yet that God does things in sequence… in a progression. Just look to the front of the book He gave us and you’ll see that He does things “in order.” You need look no further than Genesis 1:3 to discover that LIGHT is the very first order of...