The People Ask Jeremiah to Seek God’s Will, But They Don’t Like the Answer Those few of God’s chosen people left in the promised land have it bad. Babylon has conquered them. Insurgents have just killed their captor’s appointed ruler, and the people fear they’ll face retribution. They Seek God They do what they should’ve […]
To Hear from God, We Must Be Ready to Listen Advice that’s commonly given to writers is that we need to unplug from time to time to fuel our writing and feed our creativity. When we remove the distractions of our technology is when inspiration strikes. It’s when we solve writing problems and are best […]
Job Professes His Spiritual Practices The words of Job’s friend Eliphaz fail to comfort him. Instead they stir up anger. With a friend who speaks like Eliphaz I’d be angry too. In Job’s reply to his so-called friend, he professes what he has done to align himself with God. He claims his practices prove his […]
Here is a trio of thoughts from the book of Job: What Job Feared Most Happened to Him The enemy (that is Satan, the devil) knew Job’s fears and exploited them. Although everyone fears something, we are best advised to turn our fears over to God and not dwell on them. Job Believed that Through […]
What the Bible Teaches About Wisdom May Shock Us The book of Proverbs talks a lot about wisdom. The word pops up in fifty-five versus in this thirty-one-chapter book. That’s a lot of wisdom. This may be the reason why many think of Proverbs as a book of wisdom. As Solomon and his co-writers compile […]
God Reveals the Meaning of Dreams to Joseph Joseph (son of Jacob, in the Old Testament) is in a world of hurt. His life has spiraled downward. The favorite son of his father, his jealous brothers stoop to selling him as a slave to some passing traders. Joseph ends up in Egypt, a slave to […]
Beware the Risks of Clearing Your Mind Several years ago, my spiritual director recommended I consider centering prayer as a spiritual discipline. About the same time, a dear friend was exploring this technique as well. The goal of centering prayer is to connect us with God. It’s more about hearing from him then him hearing […]
We Must Remove Distractions to Hear What the Holy Spirit Says I recently listened to a talk on the topic of noise. It was the opening message to a sermon series. The teaching provided many thought-provoking ideas to consider. It also supplied me with a springboard to examine my own contemplation about noise—specifically the noise […]
Punishment May Await Us If We Fail to Listen to God Isaiah wraps up his lengthy prophecy talking about judgment. He prophesies that God has destined the people for death. That they will be slaughtered. There will be consequences. Why would a loving God want to kill his people? Through the mouth of Isaiah, God […]
Regardless of How God Speaks to Us, We Should Listen to What He Says The words of the Old Testament prophet Amos appear in the book of the Bible that bears his name. The words the God speaks come to Amos in a vision. But the Bible doesn’t tell us the circumstances surrounding the vision […]