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Where do you go when you feel inadequate?
Do you ever have times when you feel like you’re just not good enough? Today on Discover the Word, we continue a series that can help us know where to go when we feel inadequate to handle what life sends our way. Explore with the group what it looks like to “Bring It to Jesus.” Listen right […]
After You
In some cultures a younger person is expected to permit his elder to enter a room first. In others, the most important or highest ranking individual enters first. No matter what our traditions, there are times when we find it difficult to allow someone to choose first on important matters, especially when that privilege rightfully belongs to us.
Abram (later called Abraham) and his nephew Lot had so many flocks, herds, and tents that the land could not support both of them as they traveled together. To avoid conflict, Abram suggested they part company and generously gave Lot first choice of…
Spilling Through My Fingers
After I clumsily knocked over my glass on the restaurant counter, the spilled beverage began to cascade over the edge and onto the floor. Out of sheer embarrassment, I tried to catch the waterfall with cupped hands. My efforts were largely unsuccessful; most of my beverage rushed through my fingers. In the end, my upturned palms held little more than a meager tablespoon each, while my feet stood in puddles.
My life feels similar on many days. I find myself scrambling to solve problems, oversee details, and control circumstances. No matter how hard I try, my feeble hands are incapable of…
Two Portraits
Clutching two framed photographs, the proud grandmother showed them to friends in the church foyer. The first picture was of her daughter back in her homeland of Burundi. The second was of her grandson, born recently to that daughter. But the daughter wasn’t holding her newborn. She had died giving birth to him.
A friend approached and looked at the pictures. Reflexively, she reached up and held that dear grandmother’s face in her hands. All she could say through her own tears was, “I know. I know.”
And she did know. Two months earlier she had buried a son.
There’s something special about…
What Peace Is Not
I buried my head in my pillow. My tears had run dry over the past two days of sobbing over a break-up. I had gone through the various stages of heartbreak, denial, anger and finally acceptance.
Taking the Initiative Against Despair
In the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples went to sleep when they should have stayed awake, and once they realized what they had done it produced despair. The sense of having done something irreversible tends to make us despair. We say, “Well, it’s all over and ruined now; what’s the point in trying anymore.” If we think this kind of despair is an exception, we are mistaken. It is a very ordinary human experience. Whenever we realize we have not taken advantage of a magnificent opportunity, we are apt to sink into despair. But Jesus comes and lovingly says to us, in essence, “Sleep on now.
Not a Distant God
Movie director James Cameron has been responsible for some of the most popular movies of all time: The Terminator, Titanic, Avatar, and others. But what many people don’t know is that far from being removed from the details of filmmaking, Cameron is heavily involved with almost every aspect of the process, from cinematography to creative design. Drawing from his earlier experience as a designer, Cameron even played a key role in developing some of the fantastic special effects that are the centerpiece of his most famous films.
Understanding what’s happening now . . . later
Have you ever watched a movie or TV show or read a book that didn’t seem to make sense until you got to the end? Sometimes we only understand what’s happening now . . . later. Today on Discover the Word, the group will show us how God’s plan for “The Miraculous Life of Elisha” made […]
Being a part of God’s “upside down” kingdom
The Bible tells us that often God’s ways are not our ways. And maybe nowhere is that clearer than in “The Miraculous Life of Elisha.” Join us today on Discover the Word as we’ll be unpacking what it means to be a part of God’s “upside down” kingdom. Challenge your assumptions today, right here on Discover […]
I See You
“I see you,” a friend said in an online writers’ group where we support and encourage each other. Having felt stressed and anxious, I experienced a sense of peace and well-being with her words. She “saw” me—my hopes, fears, struggles, and dreams—and loved me.
When I heard my friend’s simple but powerful encouragement, I thought of Hagar, a slave in Abram’s household. After many years of Sarai and Abram still longing for an heir, Sarai followed the custom of the culture and told her husband to conceive through Hagar. But when Hagar became pregnant, she treated Sarai with contempt. When Sarai…
How A Hot Cup of Cocoa Pointed Me to God
The morning breeze mercilessly blew above the walls and enveloped any brave soul standing in its path on a frigid, December morning at dawn’s break.
