I once saw a Carnival Cruise lines ad talking about how happy their cruises can make you. Somehow taking a cruise can make a huge difference in our lives. It’s like somehow, they can just shoot us full of happy on their boat with “a fire hose filled with happiness molecules.” That’s the problem. We… [Read more…]
January 31, 2012
We get a wonderful and beautiful picture of faith and leading in these verses as we read the word “led.” “The Lord has shown unfailing love and faithfulness to my master, for he has led me straight to my master’s relatives” (Genesis 24.27; cf. v. 48). Interestingly enough, this particular Hebrew word for “led” only… [Read more…]
January 30, 2012
Since we’ve been reading Genesis 24 about the quest to find a wife for Isaac, in the last three posts we’ve learned a few really cool things about close encounters with God or the workings of God in our lives. And the great thing about this story is that we get to see all these things,… [Read more…]
January 29, 2012
What do we see when we look at our lives? Really. Good days? Bad days? Amazing things? Difficult things? When we look at the story of our lives, what do we see? I see good decisions, bad decisions; things that excite me, things that embarrass me; things that make me happy, things that make me sad.… [Read more…]
January 27, 2012
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a movie about a man who becomes obsessed with an alien encounter. He cannot help himself, he must discover what’s happening. He builds a mud model of the landmark that keeps flashing in his head, he leaves for Wyoming trying to find this large piece of rock, and he… [Read more…]
January 9, 2012
In yesterday’s post, we heard a little of Charles Finney telling of his conversion experience with a wonderful phrase: “liquid waves of love.” It was a very powerful in his life; I think it aptly captures what happened to him. It brought him to repentance; it brought him to wanting to change his life; it brought… [Read more…]
January 8, 2012
Several years ago, a friend of mine brought me a book containing the memoirs of Charles Finney, and I really enjoyed it. For those of you who don’t know much about Charles Finney, he was born in the late part of the eighteen century. By the time he was a young man, he had trained as… [Read more…]
January 7, 2012
When we finished our last post, we talked about missing the worship of God. If we think we can worship once a week or so and get what we really need, we have missed it. If we think one hour on Sunday morning will give us what we need we miss it. Our notion of… [Read more…]
January 6, 2012
When Isaac Watts penned his famous Christmas hymn “Joy to the World, he based the song on inspiration from Psalm 98. “Joy to the World” is a powerful song of praise to the appearance of a mighty God who brings salvation and hope to this broken world. Like Psalm 98, the song represents a kind “imperative… [Read more…]
January 5, 2012
There’s a story I once read which concerns a mother cutting the ends from her roast. As her young daughter watches her prepare the roast, she asks her mom why she cuts the ends of the roast. “Well, honey, that’s the way grandma did it, I’ve always done my roasts like her. But, I’ll tell you… [Read more…]
February 2, 2012
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