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One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get… Read More

Come down from the cross (Matthew 27:40). We don’t often think of Calvary in terms of the emotional temptation of Jesus. But if we listen closely to those insulting dagger words thrown at Jesus by the chief priests, teachers of the law and elders, we will recognize the voice of the deceiver. Just as he challenged Jesus’ lordship in the wilderness during the famous temptation recounted in Matthew 4, he can be heard in the… Read More

God saw all that he had made—and it was very good! (Genesis 1:31, NET) And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done (Genesis 2:2). bzzzzzz! bzzzzz! bzzzzzz! My phone practically vibrated right out of my pocket as a flood of messages came in all at once. I was out of town, but my children and… Read More

God's words are like stepping stones through the landscape of life. Trust in the Lord and do what is right! Settle in the land and maintain your integrity! Then you will take delight in the Lord, and he will answer your prayers. Commit your future to the Lord! Trust in Him and He will act on your behalf. He will vindicate you in broad daylight, and publicly defend your just cause (Psalm 37:3-6, NET). In the… Read More

O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart…You spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled it this day. Now therefore, O Lord, keep… what you have promised to him saying, “You shall not lack…” (2 Chronicles 6:14-16). I am thinking deeply these days about how my Father… Read More

I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34:1). The rhythmic thump of the drum reverberated off the dehydrated African hills, beckoning the children to come. I stood under an acacia tree, one hand beating the cowhide surface with a homemade stick tipped in old tire rubber, the other crested over my eyes searching the horizon. Like ladybugs the boys and girls clustered, scrambling down dusty… Read More

What wall are you facing today? For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness. For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. Psalm 18:28-29 I have found comfort in this promise in some of the hardest places on earth. Facing life's challenges can seem like looking up at an immovable wall. Islam is certainly a wall, as… Read More

I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me (Psalm 69:2). The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior! (2 Samuel 22:47) The sand sucked away beneath my feet as the waves pushed in and pulled out on the seashore where I stood. The ground was literally giving way from beneath my feet.  Looking… Read More

And Solomon assigned 70,000 men to bear burdens… 2 Chronicles 2:2 There are projects in God’s kingdom that cannot be completed without burden bearers.  Those stones hewn from the mountain would not carry themselves, assemble themselves into towering walls forming Solomon’s glorious temple. They needed strong arms to bear them to their purpose. To think burden-bearing may be one’s assignment! I daresay not many would choose it voluntarily. God’s assigned burden bearer must be careful… Read More

for Susan Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe (Psalm 107:2). “You stopped before telling me the story. Go back and tell me the story!” Her request rang against the slap, slap, slap of our footsteps on the pavement as we ran in the early morning sunlight. My friend Susan had been listening intently as I shared a painful betrayal, a celebration stopped short by… Read More