Just Another Blog

Most modern and secular thinking places fear and hope next to one another, giving hope the upper hand. Hope outweighs fear. Hope defeats fear. Hope is stronger than fear. It's an idea that would not be foreign to most of us because we are taught to not let fear capture our imaginations but to live in hope of what could be. And in many ways, this is not an overall bad way of approaching life's challenges. We should be people of hope. We should look forward to what could happen. We should not be held captive by fear of the unknown or fear of failure, for instance.  But fear and hope can also be bedfellows. In fact, it is fear and hope that the psalmist points to as being dual characteristics of those that are following God. "The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them from famine." Psalm 33:18-19, NIV While this is an odd combination based upon our more popul...

In the book of Acts from the New Testament which tells the story of the early days of the Church, we find a story about two of their leaders, Paul and Silas, who were thrown into prison because of what they were doing. This is what it says in that story: "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing songs of worship to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them...there was a violent earthquake, the doors of the prison were opened, and everyone's chains fell off ." There are a couple of important things to note here: - Paul and Silas were thrown into prison (if you read earlier in the book of Acts) because they set a woman free from an evil spirit. Also, because she was super annoying. (Read it, you'll understand!) - After being thrown into prison, Paul and Silas figured the best thing to do in their circumstances (which were not great) would be to praise God and pray. - As a result of their attitude and their actions, everyone's chains...

"The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever." (Ps. 29:10) There are two times in the Old Testament that "flood" in that way is used. Here and in Genesis 6. In the above passage, the psalmist is speaking to the power and sovereignty that God has over even the mightiest and most destructive forces of nature. If God sits permanently enthroned over even the mightiest forces of nature - which bring devastation and death and destroy anything a nd everything in its path - what kind of authority does God have over your seemingly insignificant (in comparison) problem? Be reminded today that the God whose voice can shred the great cedars of Lebanon (Ps. 29:5) is also the God who promises to give you strength for today, who brings peace into your trials (Ps. 29:11), and who loves you (Jn. 3:16).