The Secret to Seeing God Move in Your Life

Can I confess something to you? 

Most weeks I have no idea what I’m going to write about here. I have an inkling, a spark or inspiration, and even a list of ideas. But pre-planned blog posts? A pipe dream. Even when I settle on an idea, more often than not, the process of transforming that idea into something palatable and interesting is an agonizing task.

Mike Tungate (CC)

My process is usually the same. Come up with a clever title. Stew and stew and stew over the content. Pace the room. Stew some more. It’s only after all of this stewing and then bumping up against my deadline (every other Tuesday) that I remember how I’ve done it so many times before.

Two Traits You Must Embrace if You Want to Succeed in Life

Everyone defines success differently. For some it’s money. Others? Family, stability, titles, degrees.

wackystuff (CC)

But no matter how you define it, there are two traits you must possess in order to achieve your definition of success. What are they?

For the One Who Wants to See Miracles

You need a miracle.

You need a job. A cure. An intervention.

You need a savior.

Tim Pierce (CC)

So you keep looking and searching. You keep watching. Waiting. But what if there’s a better way? What if the best way to see miracles is with your eyes closed?

The Good Thing about Evil

When you first walk into the sanctuary of College Church of the Nazarene, the room seems smaller than it is. The back rows of pews have a claustrophobic feel since the low ceiling also serves as a base for the balcony above. But continue onward several paces and you leave the balcony behind, entering into a breathtakingly large and beautiful place to worship the LORD.

Atilla Kefeli (CC)

As an eight-year-old, it seemed even larger than it is. I used to lay on the pew—my chin on its rough red fabric—and stare at the ground. The tall ceilings boasted hundreds of light bulbs, and when the lights hit my parents' feet, they cast multiple shadows. There were at least four distinct shadows forming an X on the crimson carpet. Each was a different shade, as some shadows were layered upon others. This optical phenomenon intrigued me, and I would wave my hand over the ground to try and figure out which lights were casting which shadows. That is until my parents thumped me and told me to sit up.

When Comfort Puts Pressure on Your Faith

There’s a sense of urgency tied up in the word, “harvest.”

When you hear it, you probably think as I do of beautiful foliage, delicious produce, and the cooler temps that come with the impending onset of winter. It’s winter that drives this urgency. Winter equals death for so many things: perennials, birds who don’t fly south, and my supply of vitamin D. But it also spells death for the fruits and vegetables planted many months prior.

Aside from this pressing nature, harvest also connotes hard work. Picking produce, reaping crops, and all its associated tasks are not for the faint of heart. There will be sweat.

Jim Wrigley Photography (CC)

When you combine these two elements the result is anything but comfort. Reaping is stressful, laborious, painstaking, but despite all this the harvest is intrinsically good. It represents months of hard work and the promise of surviving the frost until everything begins growing again in the spring. As such there is nothing to be done in the days of summer and autumn but to work the fields. And yet some have other ideas:

Why Solomon Couldn’t Take His Own Advice (and Why You Should)

Did you ever wonder how a man so wise as Solomon could have such a sad ending to his story?

Here’s a man revered by the world: the son of David, rich, discerning. Christians and Jews alike still admire his proverbs, and just to tip my hand: Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books of the Bible.

Sue Clark (cc)

Yet in his latter years we get this from 1 Kings:

And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded. (11:9-10)

This is the same man who, essentially, discovered the meaning of life:

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecc. 12:13)

So this man King Solomon, son of David—the wisest man ever to grace the planet—sought out and actually discovered the meaning of life, yet he, himself, didn’t actually do it?

What gives?

This Woman Taught Her Daughter-In-Law a Powerful Lesson in Selflessness

Do you ever wonder why Ruth gets all the credit?

Prem Kumar Marni (CC)

She was a great woman, sure. Sticking with her mother-in-law when she could have split. But to name the whole book after her?