Category: Deliverance

11/13/2022 0 Comments

The Night Before a Hanging

Esther is an amazing book that teaches why God’s people should trust Him, keep their faith, and not give in to opposition and persecution. The Israelite exiles faced elimination thanks to an antagonist named Haman, who talked his king into decreeing their destruction. Before the dreaded day of death came for the exiles, Haman constructed a gallows for his enemy Mordecai and went to sleep, confident of his diabolical plan’s fulfillment the next day.

10/10/2022 0 Comments

Trees and Fungi

Suzanne Simard is the tree professor at the University of British Columbia.[1] She discovered through her research that yew trees communicate chemically through fungi with their neighboring trees for mutual defense. Trees are connected below ground through a fungi network that resembles the human brain’s neural networks. For example, Simard observed a Douglas fir injured by insects that seemingly passed chemical warning messages to a nearby ponderosa. The pine tree produced defense enzymes that protected it against insects. Similarly, birch trees protected fir from Armillaria root disease. When trees are dying, they pass off as much as 40% of their carbon to their neighboring trees.

5/30/2022 0 Comments

Remember the 15s

First called Decoration Day, Memorial Day was nationally observed on May 30, 1868, to honor Union soldiers who lost their lives in the Civil War.[1] In 1873, New York officially recognized this day as a holiday, and by 1890, every other state had joined them. After two world wars, the day became an official time for remembering and mourning all service members who died while serving their country.

5/14/2022 0 Comments

Your Faith has Healed You!

Life is full of challenges. As you read that what challenge comes to mind that you are facing? For some of us, it is financial, for others relationships, and still others health, the need for work, etc. What is unhealthy is when we let the problem(s) we face dominate our thinking because we flounder in fear and uncertainty. In his book Brave, Strong & Tender, Phil Downer asked, “Do you ever find yourself spending more time thinking about the size of your problems than thinking about the size of your God? Do you feel locked up because of fear?”

2/17/2022 0 Comments

Life

Satan shrewdly deceived Eve in the garden. Just eat the forbidden fruit and you will be like God and know the difference between good and evil (Genesis 3:5). The deeper implication behind his temptation was that Eve was somehow deprived. At this point in her existence, she had no knowledge of evil. What Satan did not tell Eve was that it was her relationship with God that was most important. Having her eyes opened would make her like him—a fallen creature out of God’s favor. His intent was to sever Adam and Eve’s relationship with their Creator by cunningly convincing them to disobey His command.

1/28/2022 0 Comments

The Benefit of Help

Jennifer was suffering. Her finances languished after months of just getting past too many bills. Her favorite dog, Lightning, a family fixture for thirteen years, passed away. Her job required her to be vaccinated but she was allergic to the ingredients of the shot. Despite her doctor’s note exempting her, she was getting hassled by her coworkers. Yesterday her car broke down. Just how was she supposed to pay her mechanic for this unexpected disaster?

12/16/2021 0 Comments

Nahum--Pronouncing God's Vengeance

Nahum, the only person with that name in the Old Testament, prophesied against the nation of Assyria particularly against its capital city Nineveh—located about 220 miles north of modern Baghdad in Iraq.[1] But unlike when Jonah brought God’s warnings against Nineveh and the city repented, Nahum’s audience was proud and perversely wicked—completely unwilling to listen to God and therefore destined to experience His wrath.

7/7/2021 0 Comments

God's Gracious Hand

Meditation
Ezra 8:21-23--I proclaimed a fast by the Ahava River, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us, our children, and all our possessions. I did this because I was ashamed to ask the king for infantry and cavalry to protect us from enemies during the journey, since we had told him, “The hand of our God is gracious to all who seek Him, but His great anger is against all who abandon Him.” So we fasted and pleaded with our God about this, and He granted our request.

5/31/2021 0 Comments

Wilderness Lessons

If one were to find a synonym for wilderness in the Bible it would be fairly safe to substitute hardship. The Holman Christian Standard Bible uses the term wilderness 150 times.[1] The majority of references applied to Israel wandering through deserts that resulted in all but two adults over 40 dying and a whole lot of complaining and suffering. The fascinating thing is that God has a penchant for leading His people through wildernesses, to include His own Son (Matthew 4:1). Why does He do this?

4/7/2021 1 Comment

Leaving

Meditation
Exodus 13:4—Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving.

The month of Abib, (called Nisan in the post-exilic period), extends from March to April. Moses in the passage above was addressing his countrymen at a most historic time. God rescued them from their Egyptian oppressors and now they were headed into what would become a 40-year desert ordeal. They of course did not know that—they were expecting a fairly quick move to Canaan, the Promised Land. Their leaving was done in haste with little preparation and no doubt great anxiety mixed with the joy of liberation.

2/26/2021 1 Comment

Read Only

Monday, I received a message from my antivirus program telling me that a Microsoft Word App was trying to access my protected files. I checked the block to prevent that access. The next day all my Word documents were Read Only which meant I could not edit them and anything I copied and pasted also reverted to a Read Only status. In essence I was shut down from working. Microsoft user support spent half the day trying to help me without success. The next day, the antivirus company sent me a fix and I was able to get my documents running again. Until the following day when suddenly everything was again Read Only! Talk about being frustrated—this was just not right! Once again, I contacted Microsoft and again a technician worked with me after I gave her permission to access my computer remotely. This time she was successful in solving the problem. What a relief to be able to type in new additions and to make needed changes.

1/29/2021 0 Comments

Standing on the Rock

Meditation
Exodus 17:6—“I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.” Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

12/31/2020 1 Comment

Unity Survives Tragedy

There are some years that stand out for their severity in a manner that effects the entire world and most assuredly, 2020 will be one of those signature years. But tragedies do not destroy the body of Christ when followers of Jesus stand together in unity.

9/30/2020 0 Comments

The Return

Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, “It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” On April 30, 1863, Lincoln's National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer was observed. Two days later, Lt. General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was mortally wounded in a freak accident where he was shot by his own troops. The loss of this powerful Confederate leader changed the course of the war.[1]

7/9/2020 1 Comment

Crushed!

While working on getting a book published I still lacked the artwork and so I called Bruce,* my project manager, to find out the status. When he answered the phone, it was obvious by the tone in his voice that he was stressed. Instead of diving into my request, I asked him how he was doing. Bruce sighed and then shared. “I’m going through a divorce . . . my house flooded and I’m having to replace the flooring in several rooms and it is not covered by insurance. I’m not sure if I can get a loan. I have an ulcer . . . my mother died and left me her house in a trust but one of the trustees was dishonest and it turned out that there is a lien on the home for unpaid debt . . .

7/3/2020 1 Comment

Sharing Hope

Yesterday I had the privilege of leading a former Navy veteran, Wanda* to Christ. Her journey was pitted with pain, betrayal and enough hurt to stain a landfill. But what was equally troublesome to me was when she shared that she had met many Christian counselors and self-described Christians in her pursuit for help and their singular advice was to read her Bible. Certainly it is important to read God’s Word. But when one is wallowing in confusion what is needed most is not a homework assignment—one needs the clarion gospel message.

3/31/2020 0 Comments

Numbers

The fourth book of the Bible is Numbers which is a translation of Arithmoi, from the Septuagint. It is titled as such because the book contains two census counts, numerous statistics, tribal and priestly figures, and other numerical data. The Hebrew name is included in the first sentence of the book and means “in the desert of ”; an accurate description of the book’s content, which follows the Israelites through almost forty years of desert wandering.[1]
The story began in the second year of the Israelites escape from Egypt, as they camped in the Wilderness of Sinai around 1444 BC. It ends 38 years later “in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho” (36:13) in 1406 BC.[2]

3/25/2020 1 Comment

Scared and Sustained

Have you ever been so afraid that you dropped everything you were doing and left everyone you knew to run and hide? Elijah did that and his petrified escape is an amazing story.

3/16/2020 2 Comments

Corona Virus

The numbers worldwide continue to rise: 181,377 cases, 7119 deaths, 78,085 recoveries.[1] Worldwide reactions are dramatic: airline flights cancelled, large numbers of quarantined populations, countries with closed borders, bans on gatherings over 250 people, schools closed, colleges reverting to online classes, sports leagues cancelled, plummeting stock markets etc. Behold a pandemic! The cause of this chaos is a virus named “SARS-CoV-2” and the disease it causes is called “coronavirus disease 2019” (abbreviated “COVID-19”).

2/18/2020 0 Comments

Exodus

Rabbi Irving Greenberg in his article “Why The Exodus Was So Significant” wrote, “The Exodus transformed the Jewish people and their ethic . . . Christianity and Islam adopted the Exodus at their core, almost half the world is profoundly shaped by the aftereffects of the Exodus event.”

Photo used under Creative Commons from Rachel Maxey Miles