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Joy: the first step in wisdom
We’re in a great series this week and we’re discovering that there is great wisdom in living joyfully.
Follow Your Heart . . . Really?
Follow your heart, and do what makes you happy. People offered me this advice countless times while I was growing up. They said it was the secret recipe to living a pleasurable, joyful life.
Doesn’t God Care?
Why does the intoxicated driver escape an accident unharmed while his sober victim is seriously injured? Why do bad people prosper while good people suffer? How often have you been so confused by things going on in your life that you have cried out, “Doesn’t God care?”
Habakkuk struggled with this same question as he saw the distressing situation in Judah where wickedness and injustice were running rampant (Hab. 1:1-4). His confusion drove him to ask God when He would act to fix the situation. God’s reply was nothing short of perplexing.
God said that He would use the Chaldeans as the…
Navigating between what we can and can’t control
This week our topic is wisdom, wisdom from the book of James. And one of the distinguishing signs of wisdom is how we handle what we can’t control.
Feeling Forsaken
In his book The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis records an imaginary conversation between a senior devil and a junior devil as they discuss how to properly tempt a Christian. The two devils desired to destroy the believer’s faith in God. “Be not deceived,” the senior devil says to the junior. “Our cause is never more in jeopardy than when a human . . . looks round upon a universe in which every trace of [God] seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”
The Bible gives us many examples of people who acted with…
God’s answer to asking Him for wisdom
Have you ever regretted asking a question because the answer was hard to take? That was the case with the rich young ruler who asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
How can we have joy despite our trials?
As Christians, we face constant challenges from all sides. It’s tempting to give in and give up, but God encourages us to press on! Join us as we begin a new series called “The Wisdom of James—the Wisdom of Joy.”
God So Loved . . .
July 28, 2014, marked the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I. In the British media many discussions and documentaries recalled the start of that 4-year conflict. Even the TV program Mr. Selfridge, which is based on an actual department store in London, included an episode set in 1914 that showed young male employees lining up to volunteer for the army. As I observed these portrayals of self-sacrifice, I felt a lump in my throat. The soldiers they depicted had been so young, so eager, and so unlikely to return from the horror of the trenches.
Although Jesus didn’t…
Holding Me Up
After I no longer went on family road trips with my parents, it became a rare occasion to visit my grandparents who lived hundreds of miles away from us. So one year, I decided to fly to visit them in the small town of Land O’Lakes, Wisconsin, for a long weekend. As we drove to the airport for my return flight, Grandma, who had never flown, began to express her fears to me: “That was such a small plane you flew on . . . . There’s nothing really holding you up there, is there? . . . I would be…
What if God was “A Bowl of Ice Cream”?
Of all the presents I received for my eighth birthday—coloring books, fancy stationery, and toys— the children’s Bible was the best gift. I recall racing through Genesis to Jude, but staying away from Revelation because I did not like thinking about the End Times.
Love Locks
“Love Locks” is a growing phenomenon. Thousands of people in love have attached these love padlocks to bridges, gates, and fences around the world, including France, China, Austria, Czech Republic, Serbia, Spain, Mexico, Northern Ireland. Couples engrave their names on a padlock and then attach it in a public place to symbolize their everlasting love. Authorities of some landmarks frown upon them because of the danger they can cause if too many are attached. Some think they are acts of vandalism, while others view them as beautiful art and a picture of committed love.
The Lord showed us true “everlasting love”…
Have Faith, Not Fear!
When I was going through a difficult situation in my life—my family was facing challenging financial circumstances, my parents were separating, and my secondary school final exams were drawing near—I found myself in a state of despair, not knowing where to turn to.
What If It’s True?
It’s the great debate: Is there a God or not? Let’s take it one step further and ask, “Is Jesus really God?” There’s a lot riding on the answer. It only makes sense to keep an open mind while figuring out the dilemma. Looking at the facts in Scripture as well as stories from contemporary […]
The Babel Project
Two workmen were asked what they were building together. One said he was building a garage. The other replied that he was building a cathedral. A day later there was only one man laying bricks. When asked where the second was, the first replied, “Oh, he got fired. He insisted on building a cathedral instead of a garage.”
Something similar happened on the ancient worksite of Babel. A group of people decided they would build a city and a tower that would reach to the heavens and unite their world (Gen. 11:4). But God didn’t want them working on a grand,…
