Today would have been my grandfather’s 110th birthday. While I only have a child’s memory of him, he reminds me of two Bible characters who died when they were 110 years old. Joseph, the favorite son of Jacob, died in Egypt when he was 110 years old (Gen. 50:26). Joseph was one who trusted in God. Although his life took unusual turns, he saw the…

Sometimes at a wedding or a funeral, there will be a slideshow of pictures, showing the growth of a person over the years. It’s fun to see the development from a very young child to a much older adult, where the pictures at the end look nothing like the pictures at the beginning.  What if…someone put together a slideshow right now (if this…

Romans 8 begins and ends with a reminder of the blessings of being “in Christ Jesus.” In Christ, there is “now no condemnation” (8:1)! Wow! In Christ, nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God” (8:38-39)! Wow! The verses in between enumerate the riches of these blessings by emphasizing how God sent “His own Son” (8:3), “condemned sin” (8:3), gives “the Spirit” to…

Did your parents ever tell you to do something and you responded with, “Oh, but I can’t”? Maybe it was a teacher or a boss. Or maybe you told your kids to do something and they said, “Oh, but I can’t.” Is that an acceptable response? What about when God tells us something? The Lord came to Jeremiah to commission him as one of His prophets,…

“So, I used a different fire than what God authorized for me to use. What’s the big deal? Fire is fire, right?” “So, first God tells me to strike a rock and then He tells me to speak to a rock, so I just struck it the second time, too. What’s the big deal? Striking the rock was acceptable to Him before, why not now? Besides, we got…

The fastest ride at Disney World is Test Track at Epcot, which reaches a top speed of 65 mph. That pales in comparison to Falcon’s Flight, which is under construction and testing at Six Flags Qiddiya City in Saudi Arabia, as it is designed to reach of top speed of 155 mph. Pilots of the SR-71 Blackbird laugh at those speeds, as they flew…

Restaurants and hotels purposefully use carpet that has so many designs and patterns that stains are not easily noticed. They just blend right in. Do we ever try to hide stains in our own lives in similar fashion? The Lord says that our “sins are like scarlet…are red like crimson” (Isa. 1:18). That is not an easy stain to hide. Have you ever spilled grape juice…

The queen of Sheba heard of King Solomon’s great wealth and wisdom from the Lord, but she did not believe it. She came “to test him with hard questions” (1 Kgs. 10:1). After she had “seen all the wisdom of Solomon” and his great prosperity, the queen confessed, “It was a true report which I heard…However I did not believe the words until I…