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In: Bible and Theology, Fatherhood, God's Character, Prayer and Devotions

“Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts;his name is the LORD; exult before him! Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.” (Psalm 68:4-5) The palmist worships the Lord for riding through the deserts, for being present in the lonely, dry, lifeless places often symbolically associated with not sensing God’s presence and running dry on the river of life that flows from the Lord, who else where promises us rivers in the desert. We are encouraged to exult before him who is there even when we areRead More →

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In: abuse, Bible and Theology, Children, Family and Friends, Fatherhood, God's Character, God's love, Prayer and Devotions

“As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.” (Psalm 103:13) Sadly, some of us can’t relate to this verse. Our fathers weren’t compassionate, and we certainly didn’t associate the fear our fathers produced leading to him being gentle, kind, and loving toward us. Verses six through twelve give us insight into what this creature called a compassionate father is supposed to be like, however. Elsewhere we learn God’s people are also the bride of his son, and the son does what he sees his father doing, hence all of this applies to husband-wife relationship, too. TheRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Prayer and Devotions, Sin and Holiness

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 3:20) This verse compares our eternal spiritual destination to earthly patriotism, as verses 17-19 urge us to follow the examples of strong, Christ-like believers ready for sainthood and warns us against conducting ourselves in the manner of God’s enemies, with the mindset of the secular culture, serving our own appetites, and being proud of this fact–a spiritually deadly recipe. So this note of encouragement comes right after a strict warning, that we do not have to be such, that we can turn our hearts and minds uponRead More →

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In: abuse, Bible and Theology, Fatherhood, God's Character, God's love, Prayer and Devotions

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13) Jesus asks us in the preceding verses which of us would deliberately give their child something harmful and poisonous when their child asks their parent to meet a basic need the child has to sustain life. Sadly, in our day, we can imagine, if not understand, people who would deliberately and knowingly kill their own child. The fact still remains, all but the heartless sociopath and the selfish narcissist at least have a desireRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Idols, Prayer and Devotions

“ The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” (Psalm 19:1-2) Through out history, men have looked up at the heavens and the night sky and worshiped the sun and the moon and the stars. They made idols out of created things, false Gods to make our heavenly bridegroom jealous. Yet Psalm reminds us of their original intent and purpose: to point us to the one we should be worshiping, to manifest the light of his glory, like an artist signs his name to his work, orRead More →