Tag: Week 3 // Friday

Battling Deception

Today’s story is a story of deception. Joshua and the people of Israel had conquered city after city. The Canaanites were afraid of their powerful God. The Gibeonites didn´t want to fight against Israel and they made a plan to deceive them and force a peace covenant. “But when the

Read More »

Walking in Integrity

The prophet Micah certainly lived in wicked times! The people of Israel sinned against God over and over again. They didn’t want to live as God had commanded them to live, but like the other nations around them. They worshiped idols and disrespected the law God had given them. Their

Read More »

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love. – Psalm 106:44-45 Verse 11 of today’s reading compares Ephraim (Israel) with a dove, silly and without sense. The reason for this

Read More »

Brave When Discouraged

If you and I were to grab a cup of coffee today and if I were to share my heart with you, this is what I’d say. I struggle with discouragement. I fight against it like a boxer in a ring. Some days I win, but many more days I

Read More »

Immanuel, God With Us

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).” Matthew 1:23 Let´s look to Joseph’s story today. Joseph would not be the father of Jesus even though, as Mary´s betrothed, Jesus would be legally identified as his son

Read More »

The Lord Your Shield

We don’t have much use for shields these days. Except when it comes to rain. Have you ever been caught in a downpour without an umbrella? You were at the mercy of the rain, weren’t you? It soaked through every piece of clothing you had on, and rainwater dripped off

Read More »

The Heart of God

It was a cold, wintery afternoon when I received the letter. This was back when people actually wrote letters. There was no return address – no indication of who wrote it.  I scanned the letter until the words jumped off the page, “God has forgiven me, and I pray that

Read More »

Doing Right in a Tempting World…

“[The book of] Ruth is a portrait of beautiful, noble manhood and womanhood. In a day when movies and television and advertising and the Internet portray masculinity and femininity in the lowest ways, we are in great need of stories that elevate the magnificent meaning of manhood and womanhood. Ruth and Boaz

Read More »

Never Too Old. Never Too Young.

Some weeks ago, I attended a funeral that really moved me. A 93-year-old lady went to Heaven, and we accompanied her family as they are close friends of ours. During the whole service, there were people speaking about this woman, who was a faithful Christian, and her many years of

Read More »

Love, Serve, Hope

Paul concludes this letter to the church of Thessalonica with a prayer of hope. This young established church of new Christians had faced great opposition and persecution in the one year it had been in existence. Yet through all the severe trials they endured, the Thessalonians remained utterly dependent on

Read More »