If you met her at a grocery store, you would never know. You would never know that she is a widow, that she has adopted children out of desperate situations, and fostered still dozens more. She is joyful, strong, and her blue eyes flash with a courage that is rare in our world. She is …
Sometimes we have to make decisions that just don’t make sense… Sometimes in ministry we have to make decisions that just don’t make sense to the world, to our friends, maybe not even to our families. In fact, we may just find ourselves, standing in front of the mirror one morning, shaking our heads and …
“Thank you, thank you,” read one of several excited texts, which I received after a single mom found out she was coming home to a new window air conditioner. The single mom, we’ll call her Karen, is one of the women whom we helped move earlier this year. Since her move, she has run …
Week 7: The New Testament and Children Cont’d Day 4: Stop Assuming – Ephesians 6:1-4; Colossians 3:20,21 Sometime last year, I sat down with my Sunday School class of 8-13 year olds and said, “OK, here’s the deal, our Sunday School material skips 5 chapters of the Bible between 1 Kings and 2 Kings, and …
Week 5: The New Testament and Children Day 5 – Taking a Chance – Matthew 15:38; 17:14-21 Jesus did not neglect children in His earthly ministry. In fact, He took note of them and cared for them where others failed or did not have the ability to meet the need. In some instances we just …
Week 5: The New Testament and Children Day 4: Walking in Daddy’s Shoes – 1 Peter 1:14 I still remember the feel of my Dad’s large shoes on my tiny feet. They were heavy. Loose. Cumbersome. I tripped every time I put them on and tried to walk across the room. But they were my …
Week 5: The New Testament and Children Day 1: God Cares for His Children – John 11:49-52; 13;33-35; 21:5,6 How precious, not just to be called the children of God, but to know that we are His children. In addition to the passages we looked at last week, three more passages in the Gospels compare …
Week 3, Part 2: Widows Indeed Day 4: Setting An Example Luke 2:36-38; 4:25,26 Yesterday we saw the stark difference between Jesus’ way of relating to a widow woman and that of the Pharisees. Today we are going to start looking at several illustrations from the New Testament of the honor that God gives to …
Week 9: Lessons from the Prophets Cont’d Day 3 – Robbing God (Malachi Cont’d): Malachi 3:7-17 Since Malachi only mentions the fatherless once, you might think that we should have been done with this yesterday, but we’re not. Why? Because the next section goes on to discuss something that directly affects them. This is why …
Week 8 – Lessons from the Prophets Cont’d Day 2 – Esther Cont’d – Mordecai’s Influence: Esther 2:20; 4:1-17 Esther’s obedience continued even after she had been made queen. Chapter two, verse seventeen tells us that she was made queen in Vashti’s place. The king threw a feast, he gave out money and gifts, made …
