Starting Where You Are
If God can take a disobedient prophet, turn him around, and set him on fire spiritually, He can do the same with you. He is a Specialist at making something useful and beautiful out of something broken and confused.
Insights magazine is designed to encourage, inspire, and instruct you in your journey of faith. Produced by Insight for Living Canada this free monthly publication is enjoyed by thousands of people across the country.
If God can take a disobedient prophet, turn him around, and set him on fire spiritually, He can do the same with you. He is a Specialist at making something useful and beautiful out of something broken and confused.
“Thoughts disentangle themselves...over the lips and through the fingertips.” I learned that saying over 30 years ago, and just about every time I put it to the test, it works!
I believe Christians should be concerned about the environment—valuing it as much or more than others do. We should be the best environmentalists because of creation’s relationship to God.
We may take God as He really is or reject Him on the same basis, but the one opinion not open to us is to create Him as we’d like Him to be. He is and has always been the God of love and justice in both the Old and New Testaments.
Complete knowledge doesn’t exist here on earth. I’m going to have to learn to live with unanswered questions and choose instead to act with grace and live in faith that one day I will know the whole story.
Being alert and discerning, basing one’s opinion on the absolute truth, is a sign of maturity, a mark of excellence in a life. But pasting labels on people and churches and schools with only partial facts, feelings, and opinions to back those statements up is worse than unfair...it’s un-Christian.
Insensitivity is painful. It’s damaging to our relationships, and it grieves our God. To be thick is understandable. To be thick and tired of it is commendable. To be thick and tired of it but unwilling to change—is inexcusable.
The criminal is now the hero, sadly misunderstood and mistreated. The victim is the selfish sadist who decides to press charges because he is bigoted, rash, or confused. The cold, hard facts are softened and slanted by the semantic footwork of slick political pawns.
Mankind is neither guaranteed nor promised anything in this life except trouble and death. Some the Lord wills to be rich, some poor, some male, some female, some black, some white. That’s not inequality. That’s diversity.
How would you communicate the message of James 5:13–16 to people enduring chronic pain or illness? How would you address their deep questions about God’s character? How would you emphasize the importance of prayer and confession in the midst of suffering?