What Are You Living For?
Many people living in their twilight years suddenly realize how empty and pointless their lives have been. They've made some successful business deals and had some fun, but in terms of satisfying friendships or lasting accomplishments, their lives have been zero. They have climbed the ladder of success, only to discover that all the while it had been leaning against the wrong wall.
Wholeness Of Life
A social worker told her colleagues about a young boy in an urban ghetto who appeared to be little more than a bit of twisted human flesh. He had been struck by a car several months before and had not received proper medical attention.
God Of The Hills & Streets
The 121st Psalm was a favorite of my father. The Scottish people called it "The Traveler's Psalm." Whenever a family member, a guest, or a friend was leaving on a journey, this psalm was read—or more often sung—at family prayers. When my father left the "old country" alone as a teenager to come to the United States, he was bidden farewell with this psalm.
Half-Baked Christians
The prophet Hosea used the tribe of Ephraim as a poetic representation of the northern kingdom of Israel. In a colorful admonition, he wrote that Ephraim had become "a cake unturned" (Hosea 7:8).
Does God Love Me?
It's not easy to understand the depth of God‘s love for us. Because of our pride and fear, we fail to grasp how undeserving we are and how free His love is.
Frozen Snowball
Baseball pitcher Tug McGraw had a wonderful philosophy of pitching. He called it his“frozen snowball” theory.“If I come in to pitch with the bases loaded,”Tug explained,“and heavy hitter Willie Stargell is at bat, there’s no reason I want to throw the ball. But eventually I have to pitch. So I remind myself that in a few billion years the earth will become a frozen snowball hurtling through space, and nobody’s going to care what Willie Stargell did with the bases loaded!”
Golden Gods
God had seized the attention of Pharaoh and the Egyptians with a series of plagues. Now they were dying to be rid of their Hebrew slaves. But God didn't want the Israelites to leave Egypt empty-handed. After all, they had 400 years of wages due them. So they asked their former masters for articles of silver, gold, and clothing, and they got them. Exodus 12:36 says that the Israelites "plundered the Egyptians."
Forbidden Fruit
In Galveston, Texas, a hotel on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico put this notice in each room:
NO FISHING FROM THE BALCONY
Yet every day, hotel guests threw their lines into the waters below. Then the management decided to take down the signs—and the fishing stopped!