What if your son were kept free from this draining fever in the first place, and all of his spiritual energy could be spent on God’s call in His kingdom?
~ Every Man’s Battle
I can’t conclude without talking about our responsibility to our children. If you’re a dad, your job is to build the walls for [...]
The technical term for shooing the birds is “deflection and redirection.” God expects us to put up a fight. We’re not helpless. When our gates are attacked, we need to have a plan to turn back the Enemy. God will meet us there. Isaiah 28:6 says,
He (God) will be a spirit of justice to him [...]
I said to them, “The gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened until the sun is hot. While the gatekeepers are still on duty, have them shut the doors and bar them. Also appoint residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their posts and some near their own houses.” (Nehemiah 7:3)
Nehemiah created guidelines for [...]
Homer and Virgil wrote about the famous battle between the Greeks and Trojans outside the gates of Troy. Interestingly enough, the war was started by Paris’ lust for another man’s wife. The Greeks’ siege lasted ten long and bloody years before they came up with the idea. It was simple but risky. Build a huge, [...]
My temptations are my masters of Divinity.
–Martin Luther
After the wall had been rebuilt and I had set the doors in place, the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites were appointed. I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah the commander of the citadel, because he was a man [...]
Maybe you’ve heard the story about the man who raised dogs for the cruel sport of dog fighting. Strangely enough, he would let his dogs fight each other, and he always bet accurately on the one that would win. His apprentice couldn’t figure out how he did it, so he asked him one day, “How [...]
Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. Moreover, they [...]
Sanballat and Geshem invited Nehemiah to a special meeting of high-level leaders, but Nehemiah knew that he had no business associating with men like them. We should avoid isolation, but we also have to be careful not to put ourselves in harm’s way by going places we shouldn’t go with people we have no business [...]
In the last chapter, I talked about how our self-image acts as a thermostat to regulate our behavior. Now I would like to share how our false self-image can become a prison for us.
I’m currently watching old episodes of the original “Battlestar Galactica” T.V. series with my oldest son. Last night’s episode (“The Long Patrol”) [...]
