How many of you have said, “Why don’t we see the big miracles of the Old Testament, like the splitting of the Red Sea and the walls of Jericho falling down, in our world today?  Maybe if I saw these big miracles happening in my life it would be easier to believe and trust in God.”

Think about it though, if you had been in Moses’ shoes at the Red Sea incident, would you have heard God and obeyed?  Let’s look at this through Moses’ eyes for a moment. What was the situation?

• Moses was responsible for a lot of people’s lives!  It is estimated that Moses was leading approximately 2.4 million Israelites out of Egypt.  Plus Exodus 12:38 says “A mixed multitude also went up with them along with flocks and herds, a large amount of livestock.”  This was a huge undertaking.
  
  
• They had left Egypt in confidence (Exodus 14:8) after plundering the Egyptians (Exodus 12:35 & 36), a piece of the story that often gets...

When I first started hearing about and learning about faith, I didn’t realize that I internalized the message as a new thing to do.  I was excited to learn that just as Jesus healed every single person that came to Him for healing when He walked the earth, that I could believe in faith for healing too, for example.  So, I started seeking after healing and striving to believe harder for it. Quite often this all ended in no healing, condemnation about my lack of faith, and wondering what I was doing wrong.  

I had been stressed by the problems in my life before but now I still had the problems PLUS the stress of trying to have faith.  

The opposite of stress is rest and you can either have the stress of faith or the rest of faith.  Only one of them gets you the results you want. Let’s see how to enter that rest of faith.

The old-time Israelites, the ones who saw the miracles in Egypt that allowed them to get free, the ones who walked through...

I dislike religious sounding words that I don’t understand in today’s context, don’t you?  Sanctify is one of them. I don’t think I have ever used that word in my everyday life. When it is not a common word, it can lose its meaning on us and we can just skim by it in our reading in the Bible.  

Sanctify means “an act whereby, or a state wherein, people or things are set aside for...the worship of God [and]...treated with special care as a possession of God,” according to Vine’s dictionary.  The Israelites were called holy (again with the religious sounding words!) and that means “to sanctify.” If something is holy, it has been sanctified or taken out and separated unto God. Jeremiah 2:3 AMPC “Israel was holiness [something set apart from ordinary purposes, dedicated] to the Lord, the firstfruits of His harvest [of which no stranger was allowed to partake]; all who ate of it [injuring Israel]...

I was thinking the other day, “I wonder how far I can go in faith?  I wonder what the ultimate life is that I could expect while still here on earth for a person that was walking with God exactly the way God intends for us?”  And God showed me that even if I didn’t know anyone personally that was pushing the boundaries (and I do) I had the life of Jesus as my example. 

You might have heard me say before, but it bears repeating, that there are three levels of spiritual maturity I see when it comes to reading the Gospels.  Level one is you read about all the miracles God did – walking on water, calming storms, multiplying the bread and fishes, raising the dead, opening deaf ears – and you think, “Wow, isn't my God awesome and powerful!”  Level two is you read those same miracles and you think, “If God did it for those people He’ll do it for me.  If God healed them, He’ll heal me.  If God...

Have you ever read through 1st and 2nd Kings in the Bible?  You read over and over in the history of Israel how when this king was in power and did what was right and Israel walked with God, the nation prospered and then this other king comes into power and does what is evil in the sight of God and the nation fell on hard times.  It didn’t just happen once or twice. It consistently happened.

When the Israelites walked with God they lived in victory, freedom, and peace.  When they went their own way they lived in defeat, bondage, lack, and unrest. It is no different for us today.  In this stressful world, we all like the idea of peace and God gave us a very clear history lesson in the Bible of how to achieve it as a nation and as an individual…walk with God.

The Hebrew word for peace is shalom and it means “nothing missing, nothing broken,” or “to be whole.”  Sounds like a pretty good thing to have, right? Peace is a...

One common theme I often hear being talked about among Christians today is that the world is getting crazier, darker, more evil and more confused.  As we get closer and closer to Christ’s return, evil will abound the Bible tells us. (2 Tim 3:1).

Are you letting the darkness of this world trouble you?  Stress you out?

If so, I want to remind you that you are not of this world. For you and me, and anyone that has made Jesus their Savior, we don’t have to live in the darkness of this world.  For us, the days will become brighter and brighter as God shines His light in our lives.

One of the ways that God shines His light into our lives is by giving us His wisdom.  As we get closer to Jesus’ second coming, the Father will continue to bring revelation into our lives that will allow us to receive more and more of His wisdom.  

I was just reading about a preacher in the early 60’s that started preaching what is referred to as the...

I’ve had the wonderful blessing of giving birth to three children.  When I was expecting my first I was unable to take birthing classes due to our work schedules, so I went into labor not knowing what to expect and kind of just winging it.  I discovered that when a contraction would come, if I closed my eyes in pain, all I could think about was how much it hurt and at times it was unbearable.  But then I discovered, if I would look straight ahead and find a focal point to stare at (for me it was the light switch plate) then I could deal with the pain much better and concentrate on my breathing.  I remember one time that my husband, Rodney, walked through my line of sight during a contraction and broke that focus I had on the light switch and I was once again thrown into overwhelming pain.

I’ve discovered in life that I need to fix my eyes on Jesus, as steadily as I did that light switch plate.  If I focus on my problems, then they...

Can you think of anyone in the Bible who went through a more overwhelming ordeal than Job  (other than Jesus)? Let’s recap what happened to him IN ONE DAY...Job 1:13-19 “Job’s sons and daughters were having a feast in the home of his oldest son, when someone rushed up to Job and said, 'While your servants were plowing with your oxen, and your donkeys were nearby eating grass, a gang of Sabeans attacked and stole the oxen and donkeys! Your other servants were killed, and I was the only one who escaped to tell you.'

"That servant was still speaking, when a second one came running up and saying, 'God sent down a fire that killed your sheep and your servants. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.'  Before that servant finished speaking, a third one raced up and said, 'Three gangs of Chaldeans attacked and stole your camels! All of your other servants were killed, and I am the only one who escaped to tell you.'

" That servant was still...