Four Seasonal Dangers and Strategies

I’ve been giving a lot of thought these days to the subject of God’s will. While engaged in a study of that issue recently, I came across a term we rarely use or read these days: providence. The root meaning of providence is “foresight . . . to see in advance” or “to provide for.” But those definitions could leave us with too shallow an understanding. Providence contains far more than a passive reference to God’s foreknowledge.

Their Quest, My Benefit

All of us are surrounded by and benefit from the results of someone’s quest. Let me name a few. Above my head is a bright electric light. Thanks, Tom. On my nose are eyeglasses that enable me to focus. Thanks, Ben. In my driveway is a car ready to take me wherever I choose to steer it. Thanks, Henry. Across my shelves are books full of interesting and carefully researched pages. Thanks, authors.

Quests

Without a quest, life is quickly reduced to bleak black and wimpy white, a diet too bland to get anybody out of bed in the morning. A quest fuels our fire. It refuses to let us drift downstream, gathering debris. It keeps our mind in gear, makes us press on.

Externals vs. Internals

The nation to whom the prophet Isaiah wrote was going through the empty motions of a hollow religion. All the right words, all the right appearances, but zero results. They even fasted and prayed. I suppose we could say they looked and sounded orthodox, but they missed God’s favor. They observed the external Sabbath, but they lacked the internal Shalom. Why? Don’t hurry through the answer (Isa. 58:6–12). It’s worth reading aloud, perhaps more than once.

Compassion

It was one of those backhanded compliments. The guy had listened to me talk during several sessions at a pastors’ conference. All he knew about me was what he’d heard in the past few days: ex-marine . . . schooled in an independent seminary . . . committed to biblical exposition . . . noncharismatic . . . premil . . . pretrib . . . pro this . . . anti that.

Handwriting

There is nothing quite like the charm and personal touch conveyed by a handwritten note. Since our penmanship, like our fingerprint, is altogether unique, each curve of the letter or stroke of the pen bears its own originality. There is personality and warmth and, yes, special effort too; for, after all, it’s much more efficient to click on the PC, bang out a few lines on the keyboard, and print it.

Goods vs. God

While we think we may be immune to the endless litany of television commercials, newspaper ads, our friends’ gadgets and gizmos, the constant admonition to spend, spend, spend, we Christians need to be alert to how Satan tempts us with the temporal. I’ll mention a few ways to avoid the magnetism of the cash register or the credit card.

Blind Loyalty Is Not Servanthood

You may remember the story of a young man named Christopher Edwards who became a helpless pawn in the hands of one of the New Age religious groups that first came on the scene in this country back in the 1970s. Edwards was so captivated by this insidious movement that he had to be kidnapped by his own family before there could be any hope of recovery.

Tag Archives: Colossians