What you don’t know CAN hurt you. I have just come through a serious respiratory illness that suddenly appeared without warning. After several months, I was getting worse and worse, and not only did my symptoms get so severe that I was struggling to breathe, my doctors could not even diagnose my problem. It seemed an unknown “enemy” was trying to kill me. (The nerve!!) They finally put me on a heavy steroid regimen to treat and reverse the symptoms … and it worked! In just a month, I was virtually symptom-free. I FELT great! No more coughing, no shortness of breath … no more problem! “I’m WELL!!!” … I thought. The problem was that my apparent (lack of) symptoms didn’t tell the whole story. Though I FELT well, the doctor could see the TRUTH beyond my “feelings.”  He said “I’m glad you FEEL better! But, the fact is, you’re still sick.” Sure enough, though the steroids had “cured” the symptoms, tests showed that there was still serious inflammation in my lungs. What I FELT fooled me. The point I’m making here is that feelings alone can relate a “false truth”.  If I went just by how I “FELT,” I…

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). I live in a region that experiences four distinct seasons each year. We are currently enjoying (and I use that word loosely) summer. It is currently hot and dry, which means I am constantly watering my outdoor plants to keep them alive. Still, I prefer summer’s heat to winter’s freezing blasts. I suppose the “best” season depends on one’s preferences. I prefer the warm, mellow days of late spring to early summer. A friend enjoys cold, snowy days. We each get our favorite, just not at the same time. Just as there are seasons in nature, life also holds seasons. We see this in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. At times we experience joy, but times of sorrow also come. Sometimes we need to boldly speak up, but in other circumstances silence is best. We may embrace things in life, but sometimes we must step back and let them go. We laugh; we cry. We hurt; we heal. Circumstances—seasons—change. Shifting seasons come to everyone, even the child of God. Some are pleasant but others not so much. All form part of the natural rhythm of life.…

“Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.” (II Corinthians 9:6, NLT) Two men. Two different philosophies of life. I was a teenager at the time, but I doubt I was perceptive enough at that age to realize the significance of each man’s attitude. The first man’s philosophy was, “The more you learn, the more you have to do.” His ambition was to do the least amount of work possible without getting fired. Or maybe he didn’t even care about that. Even as a teenager, I knew his attitude was wrong. The second man’s father taught him to believed, “You never get paid for more than you do unless you do more than you’re paid for.” It probably doesn’t surprise you that the second man worked his way up into a management position within his company and became very successful. The first man was of the “small crop” mentality. If he didn’t plant much seed, he wouldn’t have to do as much work. The second man chose to scatter as much seed as possible so he could bring in an abundant harvest.…

“Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.” (Matthew 27:26, NKJV) One of the things I enjoy in studying the Bible is doing character studies. Some, like Abraham and David, have chapters dedicated to their stories. Others are lesser known and may only have a sentence or two—Jabez, Shamgar, Jethro, Dorcas, Anna. I always want to know more about who they were, what they did, and why they did it. But there’s usually little information to satisfy my curiosity. A man is mentioned in each of the Gospels whose name is familiar to almost everyone, yet we know so little about him: Barabbas, the man who escaped the cross. From what is written, we learn only a few details. He was a “notable [notorious] prisoner” (Matthew 27:16). He “had made insurrection” and “had committed murder in the insurrection” (Mark 15:7). He was in prison for sedition and murder (Luke 23:19). He was a robber (John 18:40). In other words, he was a dangerous, unsavory person and the very opposite of Jesus. As an act of goodwill, it was customary for the governor to release one prisoner just before the feast of…