"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7 NIV) The Greek word for anxiety is "merimna" which means to be distracted or divided, to fall apart or to be split into pieces. It is a good description of something that we all experience when...
"He will call out to me, 'You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.'" (Psalm 89:26 NIV)We all get distressed at times. We fall out with someone at home, and we ache emotionally for the rest of the week. Something that we've planned goes awry, and we get stressed...
"Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." (Romans 13:10 NIV)For many months, I have been strongly advocating the wearing of masks in public places in order to diminish the impact of the present pandemic. By wearing a mask, I...
"Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches." (2 Corinthians 11:28 NIV) Like most pastors, I often wake up in the middle of the night thinking about and worrying over people in the congregation that I serve. I guess that...
"Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to His faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts." (Psalm 85:8 NRSV) Sometimes, we get so busy at this time of year that we forget to listen to what God is saying to us. We get...
"If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach" (Romans 12:7) The faith that I have in my heart was planted by three teachers. One was a young man called Billy, who wanted to be a missionary in Africa, but he couldn’t go because his eyesight was...
"But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God." (1 Peter 2:20) I frequently marvel at the faith which the first Christians displayed. They were...
Psalm 24:1 "The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it." I want to make a banner of this verse and super-impose it on a photograph of a hungry child in Appalachia. I want to be reminded that the least in our community, for...
"Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me." (Psalm 51:12) Years ago, I went to a conference in Los Angeles. One of the speakers was H.B. London, who is known nationally as being a pastor to pastors in crisis. He spent over...
"As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning." (Exodus 17:11) This is one of my favorite Old Testament stories. I can just picture Moses, as old as he was, straining to keep his arms...