Basic Truths | Finding God in Everyday Life

  We took a trip to Austin last week. The day we arrived, the temperature got up to 103 degrees. We spent a fair amount of time outside so we had enough of the heat by the end of the day. We were glad to see that our hotel had an outdoor swimming pool. We got in the pool and it was so refreshing to feel the cool of the water! We felt revived by the time we got out.   In Acts, we read that Peter preached to the crowd, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19).   Peter’s words apply equally to us today. The call to repent may invoke a negative response in us but it’s really a positive experience. When we come to God seeking forgiveness, we too can experience times of refreshing, where our spirit is revived and infused with new energy, purpose, and joy. This isn’t a once in a lifetime experience, but one that can be ours whenever we turn to God for forgiveness. It’s a foretaste of our ...

  We were trying to program our oven the other day and needed to look at the instructions. The manufacturer didn’t give us an instruction manual, only a link where we could go online to get the information. It irks me that many companies don’t give you printed instructions any more. I know we live in a digital age but it’s so much easier for me to have instructions right at hand when I need them.   God has given us an instruction manual for living. The Bible gives us all the information we need for knowing how God wants us to live. My bible study took me to Micah this week, where I read, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). I was really struck by this, even though I’ve read it many times before. We’re told that “… the word of God is living and active” (Hebrews 4:12) because it has the ability to speak to us in whatever circumstances we may be in. It gu...

  Somehow or other, a recent conversation I was in got around to having regrets. Any time I hear the word regrets, I immediately think about “My Way”, the song popularized by Frank Sinatra. The song is about someone looking back on his life, saying, “ Regrets, I've had a few, But then again, too few to mention ”. He doesn’t have many regrets because “I did it my way”.   Now, like most people, I have a few regrets when I look back at my life. For me, though, my regrets are usually because I did it my way, instead of doing it God’s way. Even though I know that God’s way is the best, if not the most direct, way, I sometimes still try to get away with doing it my way and asking God to bless it.   The Bible has many examples of people who didn’t trust in God’s way. When the Israelites were in the desert, God desired to give them the land of Canaan. They refused to go to battle to win it, because they were afraid of the people living there and didn’t trust God to give ...