But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Isaiah 64:8 Have you ever been to one of those places that has a whole community set up just like things used to be in the early 1800s? Everything is so primitive and all the people in the community are working together to make ends meet. I’ve always been impressed by the blacksmith shop

Is this the man that…opened not the house of his prisoners? Isaiah 14:16-17 A popular television show in the 1950s and 60s made fun of the German POW camps. The show centered around Stalag 13, where the commandant, a bumbling fool, prided himself on the fact that there had never been a successful escape from his prison camp. During World War II, that premise was quite the reality. Those who were brought into the POW camps rarely escaped, and many of those who d

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Revelation 2:4 Often, on cool fall nights, I light a campfire in the back corner of my yard where I have a fire pit. My kids love to sit there and watch the flames, roast hot dogs and marshmallows, and drink hot chocolate. I have plenty of wood, so I keep the fire stoked, especially since my wife likes the heat. However, we start talking, joking around, and playing games, and the fire gets negle

Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Proverbs 27:17 It happens most often as we move into the winter season: people inevitably start showing up to work and school with the sniffles. That usually leads to coughing, sneezing, and a lot less hand-shaking and interaction between co-workers and classmates. Often the person with the cold will say, “I would shake your hand, but I’m contagious and I don’t want to get you sick.” That is usually our

Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few. Matthew 9:37 (Though this may be helpful for anyone, it may be particularly so for young people.) Have you ever had someone call your house or your cell phone over and over until you finally got sick of them calling? It may even be someone you don’t mind talking to, but when

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7:1 Glenn Cunningham was a remarkable man. At eight years old, his job was to use kerosene to start the fire in the pot-bellied stove in the one-room schoolhouse he attended. When someone mistakenly replaced the kerosene with gasoline, the explosion started a fire from which he was rescued unconscious. His

The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good. Psalm 36:3 A growing problem across the country and across the world is identity theft. It is no longer uncommon for someone to get the social security number, a bank account number, and other pertinent information that belongs to another person and use it as their own. They u

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. James 4:14 The other day, one of the guys in my teen group said he didn’t want to just make a million dollars; he said he wanted to make a billion. So I asked him what he would actually do if he even had only a million dollars. He started trying to list some things he would buy. He said he would buy a bunch of CD

Remove not the old landmark… Proverbs 23:10 It is a fact that most people live within fifty miles of where they grew up. That is not the case for me. I live over eight hundred miles from my home town. Naturally, I don’t get to go back home as often as I would like to, and things change a lot between visits. The home that I lived in for the first six years of my life is torn down; the little store I used to walk to to buy “penny candy” has been moved; and even the little groce