Topic > Christian Beliefs
God’s got a plan for good
No one likes being the bearer of bad news. And as the Discover the Word group discovers in their study of “The Miraculous Life of Elisha,” Elisha probably didn’t either. But as we’ll see today, God’s got a plan for good, even when it just seems like more bad news. Join us today on Discover […]
Love Revealed
When a series of pink “I love you” signs mysteriously appeared in the town of Welland, Ontario, local reporter Maryanne Firth decided to investigate. Her sleuthing turned up nothing. Weeks later, new signs appeared featuring the name of a local park along with a date and time.
Accompanied by a crowd of curious townspeople, Firth went to the park at the appointed time. There, she met a man wearing a suit who had cleverly concealed his face. Imagine her surprise when he handed her a bouquet and proposed marriage! The mystery man was Ryan St. Denis—her boyfriend. She happily accepted.
St. Denis’s…
Understanding what’s happening now . . . later
Have you ever watched a movie or TV show or read a book that didn’t seem to make sense until you got to the end? Sometimes we only understand what’s happening now . . . later. Today on Discover the Word, the group will show us how God’s plan for “The Miraculous Life of Elisha” made […]
Are You Listening to God?
We don’t consciously and deliberately disobey God— we simply don’t listen to Him. God has given His commands to us, but we pay no attention to them— not because of willful disobedience, but because we do not truly love and respect Him. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Once we realize we have constantly been showing disrespect to God, we will be filled with shame and humiliation for ignoring Him.
“You speak with us, . . . but let not God speak with us . . . .”
Is Your Mind Stayed on God?
Is your mind stayed on God or is it starved? Starvation of the mind, caused by neglect, is one of the chief sources of exhaustion and weakness in a servant’s life. If you have never used your mind to place yourself before God, begin to do it now. There is no reason to wait for God to come to you. You must turn your thoughts and your eyes away from the face of idols and look to Him and be saved (see Isaiah 45:22).
Your mind is the greatest gift God has given you and it ought to be devoted entirely to Him. You should seek to be “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ . . .” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Is Your Ability to See God Blinded?
The people of God in Isaiah’s time had blinded their minds’ ability to see God by looking on the face of idols. But Isaiah made them look up at the heavens; that is, he made them begin to use their power to think and to visualize correctly. If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in nature and will realize that it is holy and sacred. We will see God reaching out to us in every wind that blows, every sunrise and sunset, every cloud in the sky, every flower that blooms, and every leaf that fades, if we will only begin to use our blinded thinking to visualize it.
The Christian’s dilemma of having dual citizenship
Christians face an interesting dilemma, living as dual citizens of both the country of their residence and the kingdom of God. So, how can we respect those in authority over us on earth, while also being faithful to the God of heaven? That’s a problem that Elisha faced in the book of Second Kings. Tune in […]
Leaning on Jesus
Sometimes when I put my head on my pillow at night and pray, I imagine I’m leaning on Jesus. Whenever I do this, I remember something God’s Word tells us about the apostle John. John himself writes about how he was sitting beside Jesus at the Last Supper: “One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him” (John 13:23).
John used the term “the disciple whom Jesus loved” as a way of referring to himself without mentioning his own name. He is also depicting a typical banquet setting in first-century Israel, where the table was much lower…
Being a part of God’s “upside down” kingdom
The Bible tells us that often God’s ways are not our ways. And maybe nowhere is that clearer than in “The Miraculous Life of Elisha.” Join us today on Discover the Word as we’ll be unpacking what it means to be a part of God’s “upside down” kingdom. Challenge your assumptions today, right here on Discover […]
The Advocate
From a Florida prison cell in June 1962, Clarence Earl Gideon wrote a note asking the United States Supreme Court to review his conviction for a crime he said he didn’t commit. He added that he didn’t have the means to hire a lawyer.
One year later, in the historic case of Gideon v. Wainright, the Supreme Court ruled that people who cannot afford the cost of their own defense must be given a public defender—an advocate—provided by the state. With this decision, and with the help of a court-appointed lawyer, Clarence Gideon was retried and acquitted.
But what if we are not…
God’s power is greater still
Even when God’s people seem without hope, God’s power is greater still. With God, nothing is impossible. That’s another lesson we learn from “The Miraculous Life of Elisha” today on Discover the Word. Join us as we learn that when God speaks, there is always hope.
Scriptures that beg the question, “Why did we need to know that?”
Sometimes, you come across a section of the Bible that makes you do a double-take. Why did we need to know that? Today on Discover the Word, we’ll have a conversation on one such passage. It’s a disturbing part of “The Miraculous Life of Elisha.” Don’t miss it today on Discover the Word!
How do we treat our enemies?
Today on Discover the Word, the group explores together one of the most difficult questions in the Bible: How do we treat our enemies? Is it any different from how we most often want to treat our enemies? You won’t want to miss this conversation in the Discover the Word series about “The Miraculous Life of […]
God, Elisha, and miracles
Miracles can be weird! Flaming chariots, healing leprosy, by their very definition, miracles aren’t things that happen every day! So how do we understand the many miracles God performed through the life of the Old Testament prophet Elisha? Today on Discover the Word, we continue the series on “The Miraculous Life of Elisha.” Tune in today […]
I See You
“I see you,” a friend said in an online writers’ group where we support and encourage each other. Having felt stressed and anxious, I experienced a sense of peace and well-being with her words. She “saw” me—my hopes, fears, struggles, and dreams—and loved me.
When I heard my friend’s simple but powerful encouragement, I thought of Hagar, a slave in Abram’s household. After many years of Sarai and Abram still longing for an heir, Sarai followed the custom of the culture and told her husband to conceive through Hagar. But when Hagar became pregnant, she treated Sarai with contempt. When Sarai…
