Will To Be Faithful
A person’s will is embodied in the actions of the whole person. I cannot give up my will— I must exercise it, putting it into action. I must will to obey, and I must will to receive God’s Spirit. When God gives me a vision of truth, there is never a question of what He will do, but only of what I will do. The Lord has been placing in front of each of us some big proposals and plans.
Many Gifts, One Purpose
Corn, also called maize, is the staple food in my home country of Mexico. There are so many different types. You can find yellow, brown, red, and black cobs, even mixed ones with a wonderful spotted pattern. But people in the cities usually won’t eat the spotted cobs. As restaurateur and researcher Amado Ramírez explains, they somehow believe uniformity is a synonym of quality. Yet the spotted cobs taste good, and they make excellent tortillas.
The church of Christ is much more similar to a spotted ear of corn than to a cob of just one color. The apostle Paul used…
All Efforts of Worth and Excellence Are Difficult
If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all efforts of worth and excellence are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but its difficulty does not make us faint and cave in—it stirs us up to overcome. Do we appreciate the miraculous salvation of Jesus Christ enough to be our utmost for His highest—our best for His glory?
Declaring Dependence
Laura’s mom was battling cancer. One morning Laura prayed for her with a friend. Her friend, who had been disabled for years by cerebral palsy, prayed: “Lord, you do everything for me. Please do everything for Laura’s mother.”
Laura was deeply moved by her friend’s “declaration of dependence” on God. Reflecting on the moment, she said: “How often do I acknowledge my need for God in everything? It’s something I should do every day!”
During His days on earth Jesus demonstrated continual dependence on His heavenly Father. One might think that because Jesus is God in a human body, He would have…
Discover Tangible Ways To Be A Grace Dispenser
You may not recognize it immediately, but it’s entirely possible that the person standing right next to you is really struggling. Today on Discover the Word, our team, and special guest Philip Yancey, provide tangible ways to help those who are hurting. It starts with being willing dispensers of God’s grace. Don’t miss the conversation, today on Discover the Word!
Visions Becoming Reality
The parched ground shall become a pool… —Isaiah 35:7
We always have a vision of something before it actually becomes real to us. When we realize that the vision is real, but is not yet real in us, Satan comes to us with his temptations, and we are inclined to say that there is no point in even trying…
God Is With Me In My Panic Attacks
It was just like any other Saturday night, and I was hanging out with my friends after the church service.
Hidden Beauty
Our children needed a little coaxing to believe that it was worth putting on snorkeling gear to peer beneath the surface of the Caribbean Sea off the shore of the island of Tobago. But after they dove in, they resurfaced ecstatic, “There are thousands of fish of all different kinds! It’s so beautiful! I’ve never seen such colorful fish!”
Because the surface of the water looked similar to freshwater lakes near our home, our children could have missed the beauty hidden just below the surface.
When the prophet Samuel went to Bethlehem to anoint one of Jesse’s sons to be the next…
God Is Present In Our Suffering
Where is God when painful circumstances lay us low? Today on Discover the Word, our team, and special guest and author Philip Yancey, suggest that God is more present in our suffering than we might think. Learn ways to accept comfort from the Lord and extend that comfort to others—to be a “Grace Dispenser,” today on Discover the Word!
Don’t Plan Without God
Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass —Psalm 37:5
Don’t plan without God. God seems to have a delightful way of upsetting the plans we have made, when we have not taken Him into account.…
When God’s Plan for Your Life Doesn’t Look Radical
During my first year of university, I was constantly meeting new people in class, my dorm, and various student groups. By the time year three came around, a friendship had solidified with three people in particular. The four of us met through a student ministry during my first year, and though higher level courses and […]
God’s Great Creation
On a recent visit with some of our grandchildren, we enjoyed watching a web cam that focused on an eagle family in Florida. Every day we would check in on the mom, the dad, and the baby as they went about their daily routine in their nest high off the ground. Each day the parent birds would keep a constant, protective vigil over the eaglet, bringing him fish from a nearby river for nourishment.
This little eagle family depicts for us one image the psalmist gave us of God’s magnificent creation in Psalm 104—an array of creation images, of scenes from…
How the Fourth of July Reminds Me of Jesus
The Fourth of July holiday—commemorating the beginning of the American revolution against the motherland, England—is a central part of the United States’ origin story. Odds are that even if you don’t live in the USA, your home country has an origin story, too.
God’s Grace Extends To Both The Oppressed And The Oppressor
Zacchaeus was a wee-little tax-collector with a big reputation, siding with a corrupt government to swindle his neighbors. Today on Discover the Word, our team and special guest Philip Yancey use this biblical portrait to reveal how God extends grace to both the oppressed and the oppressors. It’s a discussion that challenges our expectations . . . today on Discover the Word!
One of God’s Great “Don’ts”
Do not fret— it only causes harm —Psalm 37:8
Fretting means getting ourselves “out of joint” mentally or spiritually. It is one thing to say, “Do not fret,” but something very different to have …
