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El Roi: The God Who Sees Women Like Jyothi
Meet Jyothi. She has three young children. Her husband has serious health issues and is unable to work at even the most menial labor. She came to the sewing training center desperate for a way to feed her family and keep them off the street. In a few months, Jyothi will earn a certificate verifying that she is a trained seamstress. This government-recognized certificate will qualify her for a decent job at one of the many tailor shops in her...
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...
Running with the Mountain Goats
If you search the internet for images of mountain goats, you will see them standing on what appears to be sheer vertical walls. That is because they have special hooves designed to find traction on the smallest of footholds. They show no signs of the fear of heights. The classic book, Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard, is an allegory of the Christian life (similar to Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan). The Bible, in the same way as Hinds Feet, likens the person who trusts God in the midst of difficult circumstances to that of a sure-footed mountain goat. “As...
How Will God Use You?
Have you ever wondered what God thinks of you? I mean, now that you have become one of His children through faith in Jesus Christ. Perhaps we get an idea from God’s interaction with Gideon in the Old Testament. If you remember, at the time of Gideon, Israel was antagonized by marauding bands from the nearby nation of Midian. These groups would sweep in every summer and steal the bounty of the harvests from the Israelites.To preserve some of the grain, Gideon was threshing it in a winepress, trying to remain hidden from the Midianites. God dispatched an angel, who...
Sheep Among Wolves
The Lord’s strategy to defeat religious deception and to dispel the darkness of hate and prejudice is NOT to unleash an army of sword-wielding, gun-toting zealots into the world. Quite the contrary, He is releasing a flock of defenseless sheep armed only with the gospel. “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.” (Matthew 10:16) Recently I learned of a documentary on YouTube called Sheep Among Wolves. In one hour, it explores the dangers and the challenges of living as a Christian in a predominantly Muslim country. Though it’s dangerous to be a Christ-follower in those lands, believers consider...