“And he said, A certain man had two sons:  And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.  And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.”  Luke 15:11-13 We are all familiar with this story Jesus told to illustrate how much God loves us. Those of us who are parents can sympathize with the father in this story. His younger son decided that he wanted to leave his family home and go out on his own. It was customary that when a father died, his inheritance would be divided. This lad decided that he did not want to wait for his father’s death; he wanted his money now. I am sure the father’s heart was broken because he loved his son very much. However, he knew that when a child becomes an adult, we must let them make their own decisions. There is an old saying:  “If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. If they…

“Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.” Psalm 25:5 David was just a youth when Samuel anointed him to be the King of Israel. Perhaps at the time, he did not understand fully what that meant. He went back to looking after his father’s sheep.  No doubt he thought often of what the future might hold for him, but in the meantime, he continued to worship the Lord. Probably many of his psalms were written during this time of waiting. They express his great love for the Lord and desire to please Him in the way he lived. God had chosen him to be a king, but there would be a waiting time before this would happen. He would be tried and tested. He would protect his flock from the lion and the bear, showing him that the Lord was with him. This gave him courage when he faced Goliath on the battlefield. For a time, he would play his music for Saul, giving him some experience of what life was like in the palace. His friendship with Jonathan was a blessing to him.…

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 Wait: to allow time to go by, especially while staying in one place without doing very much, until someone comes, until something that you are expecting happens, or until you can do something. Most of us do not like waiting.  We make it on time to our Medical appointment and then sit for what seems like hours before our name is called.  We pop into the supermarket for a carton of milk or a loaf of bread and end up in a lineup where everyone is ahead of us is price checking or having trouble with their cards. When driving, it seems like it takes forever for the traffic lights to change. I have been watching some of the Olympic Games. The competitors have a lot of waiting time. They do their routine and then wait to see if they have qualified to enter the competition. One by one, those chosen to perform do their routine again and watch the board to see how they have…

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people” (I Peter 2:9). God’s people have always been special to Him. Exodus 19:5 speaks of them as a “peculiar treasure,” chosen and set apart by God. The word peculiar has several meanings. As a teenager I never took time to check a dictionary. In my mind peculiar meant being strange, weird, or odd. I wondered why I had to be strange to be a Christian. Had I done a little research, I would have discovered that peculiar also means “to have a character exclusively its own; select or special; separate; belonging particularly or exclusively to one.” Peculiar denotes ownership. GOD’S PROTECTION When God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, He gave numerous laws to guide their conduct and worship. The restrictions He placed on them were not designed to make their lives miserable. Instead, they were to keep His people from adopting the sinful practices of surrounding nations. God’s laws were given for protection, not punishment. They were to preserve Israel’s distinctness, to keep them from blending in with the heathen society of their neighbors. “For you are a people holy to the…