Marching Forth!

What treasure is found in the pages of God's word!  For the hungry soul there is satisfaction, for those overwhelmed by troubles there is comfort, for the erring there is correction and for the weary there is rest found by faith in God.  In the C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia books, children visiting their uncle enjoyed exploring his palatial residence.  As if this wasn't interesting or amazing enough, when Lucy ventured into a simple wardrobe she entered another land called Narnia that was filled with talking beasts and adventure.  One sentence, one verse, a single word from God in the scripture is like that:  it opens up a new world of wisdom, light, joy and rest for the one who trusts in the LORD. Today I was impacted by a detail I had not considered before in  Psalm 95:8-11 :  " Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, a s in the day of trial in the wilderness,  9  when your fathers tested Me; t hey tried Me, though they saw My ...

Last night when our family read the Bible after dinner, we were treated with this passage about the missionary efforts of Paul and Barnabas in  Acts 14:1-3 :  " Now it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed.  2 But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren.  3 Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands ."  There were a number of interesting revelations of God's wisdom presented here. The first is how God has given believers the opportunity to make known the Gospel of grace so others will also believe in Jesus as LORD and Saviour.  Empowered by the Holy Spirit, God used Paul and Barnabas to bring many Jews and Greeks in the synagogue to saving faith in Christ....

I awoke this morning with the last sentence of Psalm 87 in my mind:  " All my springs are in you ."  In this song the sons of Korah wrote to proclaim the glory of God in the place of His habitation:  Jerusalem, the city where God had placed his name and the temple was built.  To say you were born in Jerusalem and numbered among God's people was a great blessing, a testimony of God's goodness and faithfulness. The song concludes, " All my springs are in you ."  The city of Jerusalem boasts the Gihon spring which continues to send forth clear, clean water directed through Hezekiah's Tunnel to this day.  The flow of this spring was vital to sustain the lives of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and it was God who caused that living water to flow in a dry land.  The words of the psalmists have a double meaning, as they acknowledged their reliance upon the spring for water and upon God who sustained their lives by His mercy, goodness and His covenant with the...

I recently listened to a sermon on Mark 2 , the passage where a paralytic was carried by four friends to Jesus.  It had been widely proclaimed Jesus was in a house in Capernaum and thus many people flocked to hear Him preach the word of God.  It was so crowded people could not even make their way near the door.   Mark 2:4-5 says, " And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.  5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you ." With divine insight Jesus looked through the dust and din and observed the faith of these men who removed the roof to bring their friend to Jesus.  It is very likely Jesus recognised the faith of the paralytic in Him as well, for he may have urged them in his desperation for healing.  It occurred to me as I considered this passage what a fittin...