Have you heard of the 1973 "Good Samaritan Study" done by Darley and Batson? Seminary students were asked to participate in an experiment. The purpose was to test the effect of being in a hurry on a person's willingness to help...
Do you ever get that urge to run when someone near you is coughing and sneezing? I know I do.
Jesus is different that way. He goes after the sick. Partly, that's because Jesus loves to heal the body. In fact, the gospel writers tell many stories of Jesus going after those who were sick and ailing, injured and broken.
David saw the pattern, and he wrote that the antidote to fear -- especially the fear of others -- is the one whom we think about, the one whom we delight in, and the one to whom we commit.
Nothing puts the Lord's strength on greater display than forgiveness.
And was forgiveness ever needed! The children of Israel had sent representatives to explore the Promised Land. They found it just as God had promised -- flowing with milk and honey. But they also became terrified of the people who already occupied the land.
It's interesting to read the account of the Israelites' unhappiness with the lack of meat to eat as they wandered in the Desert of Sinai, following their deliverance from Egypt.
One of the things we can learn from this account is that a few complainers can stir up hundreds of thousands of people: "The...
I'm not sure Dale Carnegie would endorse John the Baptist's approach. John's message was not at all designed to make him a popular man. And yet, somehow he was definitely attracting crowds -- large groups of people fascinated with his message.
And this was not exactly the Ritz-Carlton they were following him to. They had to hike out into...
And sometimes it goes way beyond "not easy." Sometimes it goes to the point of enduring attacks that surprise us by coming completely without reason or cause.
That's when it becomes super-tough. In the end, though, one can...
God loves to bless his people. In fact, it's safe to say this is the thing God most loves to do! Isaiah writes, "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you...
Peace of mind is something we're all looking for. We search for it in so many places, don't we? And yet, to "turn it all off," to quiet our minds, is one of the toughest things in the world to do!
Zechariah was the father of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was the final Old Testament prophet, and the forerunner of the Messiah.
Before David became king of Israel, he sometimes needed to find a place where he could hide from the king who preceded him. David's gifts threatened King Saul and this led him to attempt to eliminate David.
So David fled to the Philistine city of Gath where he hoped to be sheltered. But the officials...
