Basic Truths | Finding God in Everyday Life

  I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to travel. I’ve seen the Great Wall of China and the remnants of the Berlin Wall. Walls are used for a variety of purposes. The Great Wall and the walls around ancient cities were designed to keep people safe. The Berlin Wall was oppressive in nature, keeping people from freedom and being able to interact with the rest of the world.   We build virtual walls without thinking about them. Some of those walls may be useful, keeping us safe from Satan and the arrows he shoots at us. We need to keep these walls in good repair. Other walls aren’t useful at all. We build walls around us to keep from being reconciled with other people. We may try to wall off an area of our life so that God cannot get in and work.   In your quiet time today, reflect on what walls you have built. Ask God to help you tear down those walls that are harmful to you, to let His Spirit in to begin to heal you and your relationships.

  We finally got our repairs finished and our new flooring in place this week. For those of you who are keeping track, it’s been two months since we had the water damage to our house. We’re still putting things back where they belong but at least the furniture is in place and we’re able to live downstairs again. Everything looks nice and we’re happy that we went ahead with the whole project. We know that we’ll enjoy our new flooring for years to come.   During the past few weeks, when we were living out of a few upstairs rooms with our household belongings heaped up around us, I started thinking about how we grow spiritually. I’d like my life to be a nice, pleasant upward journey without any challenges or detours, but that’s not the way it’s meant to be. The difficulties we face and overcome, whether they be small or large, strengthen us and form us into the people we were created to be. They remind us to place our trust in God and to rely on Him to lead us when the pa...

  I went to church today and one of the readings was the same as what I read in my bible study at home earlier in the day. I don’t know how often this happens to you but it seems to me to occur more often than you’d expect from mere coincidence. Often the readings deal with something that I have been working on or thinking about. The reading today was from Psalm 145:   “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. All you have made will praise you, O Lord; your saints will extol you. They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.”    (Psalm 145:8-12)   We can never praise God enough for His goodness to us. The more we praise Him, the more we, in turn, are blessed.   Our praise brings us into God’s presence, where He can speak to us and lead us in His way...

    I read an article about old laws that are still on the books.   It’s reported that you can’t step repeatedly on the cracks on the sidewalk along highways in Utah. I’m sure all the mothers in Utah rest easier knowing this is the law!   You can’t hide a coin behind your ear in Hawaii. Riding a camel on a highway is illegal in Nevada, although you may do so on a city street.   I talked in my last post about how God is unchanging and everlasting, that the God you pray to today is the same God who performed all the miracles we read about in the Old Testament. It’s also true that He is the same God who gave us the Law, who gave the Ten Commandments to Moses and many other rules for living. There are ceremonial and religious laws in the Old Testament that are no longer applicable.   In contrast, God’s moral laws are unchanging. The Ten Commandments have not been repealed. Jesus said, “Do not think that ...