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Staying True to God
Do you remember the first day your child left for school, or you dropped them off at childcare? They were on your mind constantly. It didn’t get any easier when, years later, they left home for college or the military. Still, you worried. You wondered what they were doing. Were they safe? Were they happy or sad? Were they standing up to the lies and temptations confronting them? Were they staying true to Christ? The parents of Daniel in the Bible had the same concerns. But, instead of waving goodbyes to Daniel heading off to college or the military, their last...
Going Home
A friend of mine enjoys camping in the middle of the woods, alone and far away from people. It doesn’t matter to him if it’s clear, raining, or snowing. He loves to wake up to a cool morning, smell the fresh air, build a campfire and cook his breakfast. I prefer waking up in my own bed, building a fire in the woodstove, having a cup of freshly brewed coffee, and cooking breakfast in the microwave. Though I’m not much for camping, I have observed that the New Testament uses the imagery of a tent to describe our physical body. “Now...
Beautiful Churches
What makes a church beautiful? Peru and Mexico, in the midst of their poorer cities, still have large cathedrals filled with costly items. The cathedrals in London are awe-inspiring with their massive size and intricate architecture. However, many of the churches in India, and Rwanda are small and plain. Often there are no benches, so the people happily sit on the floor. You won’t see people lining up outside of them to take a tour. If you walked by one of them, you may not even know it was a church, it is so plain. The book of Haggai addresses a...
Building and Remodeling
When you see a house that was started but never finished, you wonder why the owner never completed the project. Did he run out of money or was there some major event, a divorce or sickness or death, that was the reason? In the Bible, the book of Ezra introduces us to a building project in which the people lost interest. The situation was corrected when the prophet Haggai appeared on the scene.To remember the theme of the book of Haggai, use this acrostic: How About Getting God’s Abode Improved. Here’s some context: about a century earlier, after losing a...