Whispers of Truth

Recently, my husband went fishing by himself in a local pond. He has a routine that he follows when unloading his boat, and one step of that routine when he is alone is making sure that a line connects his boat to the trailer so that it won’t drift out of reach when he pulls the truck up to let the boat slip into water. Unfortunately for him, that day he forgot to connect the line and his boat quickly drifted away from shore. I was out of town at the time and received a picture from him of his boat sitting in the middle of the pond, a good 50 or 60 yards from shore. That’s a problem that required desperate action that required swimming—let’s just say it was fortunate for him that it was a good way from road. And there was mention of alligators . . . ‘nuff said! Likewise, in our Christian walk, it is crucial that we stay connected to God’s Word and His leading in our lives lest we, too, drift. Hebrews 2:1 warns us “we must pay closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift

Men die; God doesn’t. At least that’s how it normally works. Yet God, who is One, gave part of Himself, a part of the Trinity, Jesus, to die for us. One who wouldn’t die naturally died willingly and left us the inheritance God prepared for Him. Why the statement of the obvious? I was reading in Hebrews this morning and the very beginning caught my attention. The phrase that captured it was “His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things” (NASB). Yes. I’ve read that before, but this time, instead of the first part where the Word relates that God “in these last days has spoken to us in His Son,” I focused on what followed. And then it struck me. God didn’t have to appoint an heir because He is eternal. Who has a need for an heir if there is to be no death? Yet the heir He appointed is also the One who died and also received the inheritance. It defies any human logic that exists, but that is God. He can and does and will continue to do so. God created the universe (through Christ)

This week’s Sunday school lesson is from one of my favorite Psalms, Chapter 84. I remember my grandmother talking to me about this one and others that are similar like David’s Psalm 122: “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.” I can still feel the bite of the counter’s harsh edge as I sat there listening and talking to her while she cooked and did the dishes. I don’t remember the entire context of the conversation as I was very young, but I remember that one verse being the center of it, and now when I read that verse and others like it, I have the added warmth of a good memory there, solidifying the message of the gospel even more. The older I get (in age and in my walk with Christ), the more I realize that most of my lasting relationships are centered in Him. Another example of this is in my relationship with my husband. It began centered around the Word at a time when I needed much encouragement and spiritual growth. Greg offered that to me over

Every time I read the story about the leper who came to Jesus for healing, I feel unclean, too, as it reveals things about me that I don’t like. In all versions found in the gospels (Mark 1:40-45; Matt. 8:2-4; Luke 5:12-14), the leper immediately recognizes Jesus’ authority. In Matthew’s gospel, the leper comes and bows, in Mark’s gospel, he beseechingly falls to his knees, and in Luke’s retelling of the event, the leper falls on his face imploring Jesus to heal him. In his desperation to be clean and healed from the disease, he starts where many of us fail who are “clean” and “whole” in body—he begins his search for healing at the feet of Jesus. I am not sure about other people, but I know that I often try to fix things myself and seek help anywhere it might be found, saving the begging for when the pain of ( fill in the blank ) becomes unbearable.  How is it that after all of the years I have been His, I am still learning these simplistic lessons? I know this, and it frustrates m