Ken shared with me a great thought from AF Trekker that I pass along to you. In Thailand, Christians say, “Fow Diow.” It means to have a personal, private audience with the King. Thais have a great respect and understanding of living under a King who rules them in love but who is quite distant in life experience from them. Very few Thais ever see the King; much less have a private audience w...
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Matthew 14:13—When Jesus heard about it, He withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed Him on foot from the towns. John the Baptist was beheaded and his disciples after recovering his body for burial came and reported his death to Jesus. Matthew’s gospel gives us some insight into the fact that this news weighed heavily on Jesus a...
Four of us were enjoying an informal time of fellowship when the topic came up of how we identify with Christ around others. One of the men pulled out his cell phone and showed how it had an icon of Christ as his background photo. Ron said he had also had a picture representing Christ on his phone. He pulled it out to show us, but all we could see was icons of missed calls that blocked the p...
Meditation Matthew 1:1—The historical record of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Whenever I come to a section of Scripture that is a genealogy or a long list of names, my tendency is to quickly skim through it and move on. After all, why spend time reading a list of names? This year for my daily quiet time I decided to read through Scripture and include the study notes i...
Marvin Alan Klegman was an eleven-year old Jewish boy who lived in a small two-bedroom home in Tacoma, Washington with his mom and dad, and his younger brother Kerry. Marvin was a motivated Cub Scout and honor roll student. At Lowell Elementary School he served as a crossing-guard. Marvin also worked as a paperboy. He won a Schwinn bicycle in a citywide contest by selling the most Tacoma New...
Do you ever wonder what the point is for reading books of the Bible that primarily contain prophecies of God’s impending judgment against certain people and nations? Jonah, Nahum and Zephaniah all prophesied against the Assyrian empire. When Nahum predicted the impending destruction of the capital city, Nineveh, Assur-bani-pal was its evil king. Nineveh was full of bloodshed, deceit, plunder...
What Christian is not frustrated in trying to live a godly life? Why is it so hard? For starters, we are flawed. We enter the world dripping wet with a sin nature and from the very outset need God’s grace. A baby’s temper tantrum was not learned behavior it was already ingrained. We grow up enamored with the world’s offerings—what man is not drawn to lust after a sensual woman or...
Kevin and I prayer walk an asphalt trail that is about 3/4ths of a mile around a church, a wooded area and large field. This morning I noticed big paw tracks from a dog that extended for quite a ways along the trail. If I was trained, I could tell by the size of the prints the approximate size of the dog that left its mark. Instead I could only see the obvious—a dog walked in a muddy field...
In football, when a player taunts an opposing player after tackling him or completing an exceptional play, if the referee sees or hears the infraction it often costs the team a fifteen yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. Choosing to gloat is not very smart. Why give the other team momentum and the possibility of winning a game? Gloating is taking excessive pleasure in another’s adver...
Curiosity is a powerful thing. If you are in a group and happen to notice two people whispering to each other don’t you have an urge to know what they are saying? We don’t typically like it when people keep from us secrets. Nor do we appreciate it when those who are in charge withhold information we would like to know. I remember the stress on Matt and Angie, our neighbors, when Nike w...
