The last thing healthy parents want is to hurt and discourage those they love so much. Yet, standing firm is a necessary part of training, which means our love must sometimes be “tough,” and our actions must sometimes be strong. After all, we’re dealing with children who will one day have to discipline and restrain themselves.
Psalm 127 and 128 paint a mural of inspired images depicting four stages of family life: the foundation of the home (Psalm 127:1–2), the expansion of the home (127:3–5), the child-rearing years (128:1–3), and the later years (128:4–6). These verses can help us appreciate, as well as improve, our families.
The daily nourishment of grace to our souls overshadows loss. Glory illuminates darkness. All of this is good theology but it tends to stay in our heads. What practical difference does it make when I confront living changes?
Let’s remember that God has set the authorities in place. Rebellion against earthly authorities amounts to rebellion against God, which is the most serious revolt of all.
We’ve probably all been in situations—maybe on a plane or at a convention—when the topic of religion came up and we had to face the inevitable dialogue with a nonbeliever. We’ve usually ended up feeling awkward and uncomfortable, and we've walked away wondering, What could I have said or done not only to win a hearing but to keep a hearing? Acts 8 has some answers for the apprehensive evangelist.
For most of my life God has been teaching me to release my grip on everything I hold tightly. It’s a process that began when I was 13.
Those who flex with the times, who refuse to stay rigid, who resist the mould and reject the rut…ah, those are the souls distinctively used by God.
The Nazis stripped Victor Frankl’s life down to almost nothing. Once a renowned psychiatrist, Frankl was reduced to being a slave labourer at the notorious death camp Auschwitz. He could have seethed with hate and self-pity but, instead, Frankl realized that the Nazis could never steal, shape, or dictate his attitude.
People ask this question because there is no reference to God or the Law in Song of Solomon and it seems explicit in celebrating sexual love. Through the centuries it has been one of the most controversial books in the Bible.
Who had more of God than the Israelites in Moses’ day? But they were ungrateful, hardened, and faithless. Their Great Deliverer, in their eyes, had become a cruel taskmaster.
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