Posts

GAINING EXPERIENCE

“THEREFORE BEING JUSTIFIED by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by Whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope : and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Romans 5:1-5).   The year before I retired from the job I had for 42 years was a very difficult one.   I was asked to supervise five separate departments, all of which were “problem areas.”   I was forced to ask a lot from the people who reported to me, and I was asked to give more of my time to try to turn some of the worst operations around.   The problems were mostly engineering and maintenance issues resulting from the purchase of new equipment that wasn’t robust enough to do what the eng...
Post a Comment
Read more

A HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS

Sometime around 1491 B.C., God sent a savior to deliver His people Israel from the terrible bondage that they were suffering at the hands of a cruel Egyptian Pharaoh.  Israel had been in Egypt for four hundred years, and their experience there had gone from “fruitful” to “bitter” during that time.  Things were good for them after their ancestor Joseph brought them to Egypt to save them from the great famine that he had foreseen.  While Joseph was alive, the Egyptian Pharaoh that he served treated the Israelites kindly and with respect for Joseph’s sake.  After Joseph and that Pharaoh died, however, another Pharaoh began to reign who didn’t know Joseph and didn’t honor the memory of what Joseph had done.  This new Egyptian king enslaved the children of Israel and forced them to work on his vast building projects.  Eventually, he grew suspicious of the Jews as they began to multiply and arranged for the Egyptian midwives to murder the male Hebrew babies as t...
Post a Comment
Read more

EYES WIDE OPEN

In the second Book of the Kings of Israel chapter six is a story that touches my heart because it has great relevance to the struggles that we face as Christians in an ever changing and increasingly complex world.   The King of Syria at the time, Ben-hadad, decided to invade Israel, but when he would send his army to a certain place hoping to surprise the Israelites, God would speak to Elisha the Prophet and he would reveal the position of the enemy troops to the King of Israel.  In this way, they were forewarned, and saved from disaster, many times.  The Syrian King, however, was very agitated, and demanded to know who the spy was in his ranks who was revealing their troop movements to the enemy.  One of his servants spoke up, and told him that it was the prophet in Israel who was aware of every secret plan that Ben-hadad made.  Ben-hadad, therefore, commanded his army to go and besiege the city of Dothan, where Elisha was staying at the time, and bring the...
Post a Comment
Read more