1 Corinthians 2:9b  “What no eye has seen,    what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—    the things God has prepared for those who love him—  As I think about friends who are living with the flood damage, and the aftermath of the death of Usama bin Laden , and devastating illnesses of people I know, I wonder about God's imagination. I just watched a few minutes of a show about a photographer taking pictures of the Mohave Desert. It is a barren landscape with a lot of texture and shadows and sand. At first glimpse, all one sees is the same color of sand piled into various shapes, but still very bland. What about God's imagination here?  Think of the creation story of Genesis and the escape store in Exodus. Think of the grand miracles (calling dead Lazarus from his 4 day old tomb) and the "small" miracles (See 2 Kings 13:21 Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they t...

I want to make a comment about miracles. I'm reading a book called " The Top 100 Miracles of the Bible " by Pamela McQuade.  I'm using it like a devotional - reading a miracle or two a day.  The miracles are noted in Biblical order, not ranking them by the least to the best, or most important. Looking at it this way, I'm seeing a lot of miracles that I have only skimmed over in past readings.  The Top 100 Miracles of the Bible   By Pamela McQuade / Barbour Publishing What's your favorite miracle in the Bible? You'll find it here in these brief, easy-to-understand devotions. Readings feature entertaining and thought-provoking sketches with insights and applications for 21st-century believers. From creation to the exorcism of "Legion," from an unending oil supply to an overabundance of loaves and fishes---you'll witness God's intervention and glory ! 192 pages, softcover from Barbour. Some of the ones I've skimmed or not tak...

I wonder how we got to a place where we think it is all about us.  Even we Christians think that, though we don't exactly know or acknowledge that we do.  We think God forgives us because he loves us.  We think that He sent Jesus because He loves us.  It's not about us. Isaiah 43:25 (NLT) records that God says: “I—yes, I alone—will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again." God did not forgive us for us.  God did not send Jesus for us. God did not create all of this for us.  Not even the best of us.  God created us, forgives us, sent Jesus for HIS SAKE. 1 Samuel 12:22 : " For the sake of his great name the LORD will not reject his people, because the LORD was pleased to make you his own."   2 Samuel 7:20-22 : " What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Sovereign LORD. For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant....

22 Kings 17:41 a (NIV) Even while these people were worshiping the LORD, they were serving their idols. Don't we all do this? We don't want to. It isn't our goal. But we all do it sometime or another. I have a friend who bought a new vehicle. Every day for what seemed like months and months, this friend washed this new vehicle. Every single day. At one point the friend made a comment about "having" to wash it. I said, "you don't have to wash it." The response was about it being a new vehicle.   To me, that is serving an idol. Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with washing your car.  But it seems like the car owns the owner if it demands to be washed!  If you HAVE to wash it, you are not in charge. The car is. I think we look at the idols in the Old Testament and think of wooden carved pieces, or golden calves, and somehow become trapped into thinking those are the only things that are idols.  We think it is silly praying to an Asherah p...

I have a friend who watches 6 very young children, give or take one or two, each day. There are several reasons I am glad she is helping raise these children. 1) They will be introduced and get to know God. The world needs for our children to be introduced and know God. It would be a much nicer place. 2) She tells such wonderful stories about them, about her experiences during a typical day with them, about how they understand or misunderstand what seems to be simple things. 3) She shares photos from their journeys outside. Many times these are very innocent glimpses of childhood. 4) I learn a lot from her stories and experiences. This post is about one of the things she has told me. As I said, she has anywhere from three to six children, all under two years old in her care.  Think about the diaper changes alone. She has a plan for this. By the time they are a year old, she has already started potty training. She starts so young because as she says, "they don't have will yet...

  2 Kings 13:20-21 Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man's body into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet. Isn't that funny!!?? Well, I guess it wouldn't have been if you were there or later saw the dead man walking around but I think it's funny! The Bible is full of these little stories, nuggets of more-or-less inconsequential things that maybe don't mean a thing to us today. Much of the Bible, at least the Old Testament, is oral tradition that was eventually written down.  I guess in the storytelling period, they had to spice it up a little to keep everyone's attention. Imagine sitting around the fire, listening to the storyteller telling the same story you'd heard dozens of times before.   Except this time, he throws in...

There are a lot of unnamed people in the Bible.  Many of them are key to some aspect of the Bible story. For example, Genesis 4:17 says "Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch."  I'd say that the mother of all the descendants of half the population was a key person.  There is a servant girl in the story of Naaman. (See 2 Kings 5 )  In the New Testament, there is the person who supplied the colt that Jesus rode when entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and another who supplied the "upper room" for what came to be known as the Last Supper was also unnamed.  In one case I can easily think of, the person isn't even mentioned. Luke 2:7 - "and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Christmas programs all over the world portray the innkeeper as turning awa...

2 Kings 4 :2 Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?"       "Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a little oil."  This is part of a story where Elisha helps a widow by using what she has.  She was distraught, not knowing what to do after her husband died, about the creditors who would likely demand her sons as payment for the debt they had.  She asks Elisha for advice. So, Elisha asks her what she has.  She says nothing, nothing at all but adds that, well, there is a little oil. Kind of reminds me of when the disciples told Jesus that they only had a couple of fish and some loaves of bread. (See Matthew 14:17 ) (Boy, the Bible uses repetition, doesn't it!?)  The widow thought her situation was hopeless.  The disciples thought there was no way they could feed all those people; it was hopeless.  But in both cases, God used what they had. The Bible does...