Worthy Words

Christ-followers are to have a heart of gladness; however we must take care that the source of our gladness be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. We should sing like David, “To God—the source of all my joy.” (Psalm 149:2) Every attribute of God should become a fresh ray of sunshine for our gladness. After all, our Lord reigns and is King of Kings! We are so blessed that He sits on the throne and rules over all things. Knowing that He is wisdom should make us glad because on our own we get into all kinds of foolishness. Our God is mighty. We are weak.   He is everlasting.   We wither like grass under the pressures of life. Jehovah is unchanging.   We chase every new idea in hopes that the change will be just what we longed for when in reality it leaves us more unstable than before. What really should make you glad is God is full of grace. He is overflowing with it! Grace is His covenant He has given us. It is here to cleanse us to sanctify us, to protect us to bring...

On December 9, 1914, fire swept through the factories owned by Thomas Edison in West Orange, New Jersey. The damage totaled millions of dollars. Practically everything of Edison's was destroyed, including journals and records of works in progress.   Edison was not a young man at the time this happened. Many people sent condolences and notes of sympathy, expecting that this tragedy would prompt his retirement.   Edison's response? "I am 67, but I'm not too old to make a fresh start." It's not too late for your fresh start, either. It doesn't matter how old you are. Neither does it matter how much you have lost in the fires of the past. Today is a new day, a fresh start is yours for the taking.   I have friends who entered the mission field in their sixties. I also have friends who have launched new businesses after retirement. Chuck Swindoll planted a new church in Frisco, TX at the age of 64.   My point however isn’t about age.   It...

What are you doing right now that you could not do without the help of our supernatural God? When we think of the word faith, we often think of the most incredible miracles we've ever heard about. I don't know about you but I believe in those kinds of miracles of faith. Sometimes God chooses to heal a person with cancer or other health issues. In fact, I've even heard of God giving a van supernatural extra gas mileage when a group of people were smuggling Bibles into a country where Bibles were forbidden. There are other times when people have just as much faith but God chooses not to heal or do a miracle.  Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.... And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Hebrews 11:1, 6). Faith is also ordinary people doing extraordinary things with their lives. Faith is... Bob Wieland walking ac...

In the movie Bonnie and Clyde one scene depicts the couple at a hideout, not able to leave because the cops are on their trail. It has become obvious to them that this life of crime isn’t as glamorous as they had once imagined. Bonnie Parker is dreaming of a new life somewhere, a clean life, a second chance where they could start over and live as other people do. She asks Clyde, “What would you do if some miracle occurred and we were able to walk out of here clean, with no record, and nobody after us? What would you do?" Clyde Barrow thinks for a moment and says something along the lines of, “I guess I'd do things different. First, I wouldn't live in the same state where I pulled my bank jobs, and when I wanted to rob a bank, I'd go to another state..." Bonnie’s body language showed great disappointment. This isn't at all what she had in mind.  This is just how some people get confused about grace.  The Bible tells us that “There is now no condemnation for th...

But He answered, “You give them something to eat.” They said to Him, “That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” “How many loaves do you have?” He asked. “Go and see.” (Mark 6:37-38) Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee with his disciples some two thousand years ago, while standing in the midst of hungry people, asked a most penetrating question, “How many loaves do you have?” The twelve disciples, astonished at the question, essentially replied, “We don’t know. And even if we did, would it really matter?” They were so blinded by the need that they could not even begin to acknowledge that the solution was right before them, perhaps even within their very hands. What Jesus said to His disciples, He says to us: “Go and see.” Perhaps what you are looking for—the very solution—is closer than you ever imagined. It might be in your own two hands. It may sound trite, but it’s profoundly true. As Christians...

There is a story about a writer, in his fifties, who had written a manuscript for a book and sent it to several publishers without success. He grew so discouraged that he threw the manuscript into the wastepaper basket. As his wife tried to salvage the manuscript, he told her sternly. "We've wasted enough time on it. I forbid you to remove it from the wastebasket!" Well, you know how well that works. She decided the manuscript should be seen by at least one more publisher. When she arrived at that publisher's office she pulled out the most unusual looking package that the publisher had ever received as a manuscript. Underneath a wrapping of brown paper was a wastepaper basket still holding the writer's manuscript. This way, she reasoned, she was not technically going against her husband's wishes. She did not retrieve the manuscript—the publisher did it for her. And when he read it, he loved it. The writer in this story is Norman Vincent Peale; the manuscript w...

In the September 10, 1997 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association one of its articles shed light on a federally funded study of 12,000 teenagers. The research yielded an unexpected finding— teenagers still need their parents. It may seem to us that everything we say goes in one ear and out the other, but the fact is—according JAMA—parents play a significant role in their lives. The study revealed that teenagers, who don't smoke, drink, have sex, take drugs, or commit acts of violence, refrain from doing these things because of two basic factors. The first, was feeling loved by their parents. The second was feeling comfortable in their school. Researchers also found that if parents expect adolescents to get good grades and refrain from sex, teenagers tend to be influenced by those expectations. Moreover, the study showed that it doesn't matter about the family's income, or their race, or whether both parents work, or whether there is only parent at home—the ...