March 28, 2022
Not My Will
How do you respond when life presses down on you and your situation overwhelms you? How do you cope with hard news that takes your breath away? Where do you find the strength to take the next step?
Articles for tag: God’s Will
February 22, 2021
Feb 28 | Discovery
Study Questions for Groups By Michael C. Mack 1. How did you do last week as you sought to tame your tongue and speak with civility and in praise of God? 2. What challenge did you face last week? Ask three people—two readers and one reteller—to help. Ask the readers to read James 4:1-17 one after the other, preferably from different Bible versions. Ask the third person to summarize the main points of the passage. 3. What wisdom does this passage provide for us as Christ’s church to follow him more closely and carry out his mission more effectively? 4.
November 30, 2020
Why Begin with Begats? (Dec. 6 Lesson Application)
This “Application” column goes with the Bible Lesson for Dec. 6, 2020: Fulfilled through Generations (Matthew 1:1-17) _ _ _ By David Faust Imagine you’re reading the Bible through for the first time. The Old Testament comes to a close, and you sense silent centuries passing by while God prepares to turn the page to a new day and a new covenant. Eager to read the groundbreaking good news, you turn to Matthew 1, only to find the New Testament begins with “begats”—branches on a Hebrew family tree. If you and I wrote the Bible, we probably wouldn’t have done
March 7, 2016
Are You Sure It”s Time to Move On?
By Susan Lawrence Sometimes we think we”re done. It”s time to move on. We”re ready to be finished with a season because we”re exhausted or we see a better offer. Things aren”t going well, or things are going exceptionally well. For whatever reason, we assess (or rationalize) that God is prompting us to take a step away from where we are and move on to something else. When this is the case, and we”re ready to go, it”s hard when we sense God saying, “Wait just a minute.” It happened to Simon in Luke 5. Simon and other fishermen had
July 1, 2015
A Conversation with Lysa TerKeurst
Lysa TerKeurst shared with contributing editor Jennifer Johnson just before speaking to hundreds at the 2015 North American Christian Convention ladies luncheon. Hear what she has to say about how to discover God’s best for us and why “there are no isolated choices.”
July 22, 2014
Checklist
By Mark A. Taylor My wife and I are two of the last professionals in America to use a paper calendar. It”s not that we”re opposed to digital devices. We gladly use our smartphones. I depend on Outlook to keep appointments at work, and, increasingly at home. We”re big text messagers and Facebook users. Evenings often find us at opposite ends of the kitchen table, hunched over our respective laptops. And we”ve even Skyped with a missionary friend overseas. But I organize my week around my lists, and I need those lists on a piece of paper I can keep on
July 18, 2014
The Desire of My Heart
By Sam E. Stone (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I”ve Ever Received.”) As a student at Ozark Bible College in the 1950s, I was facing the typical decisions of a college student: What will I do with my life? Where will I serve? Who is the right person to marry? That last question was really big! I was talking about it with Gerald Bowlin, a missionary friend from Mexico, when he was in Joplin for the National Missionary Convention. He said, “Sam, let me give you a verse of Scripture.” Then he turned to Psalm 37:4, “Take
March 4, 2014
Brighter Days Ahead?
By Mark A. Taylor For the person enduring dark times, the biblical story of Joseph can be an inspiration. As a young man he went from favored son to captured slave to a position of authority to years in prison and then, finally, to his place as the second-in-command to the Egyptian pharaoh. When my men”s Bible study looked at his life, we focused on the happy ending to Joseph”s many years of recurring disappointments and confusion. What”s the lesson for our lives today? Our study guide pointed us to a verse Christians love to quote: “In all things God
October 6, 2013
The Unpopular Answer
By Chad Ragsdale When someone asks me about God”s will for their life, my reply isn”t usually what they”re anticipating. “Be holy,” I say, for this is the Bible”s simplest solution to the problem. “So . . . I”m trying to figure out . . . what exactly is God”s will for my life?” Living and working among hundreds of Bible college students for several years, I”ve heard different versions of this question dozens of times. Where should I go to school? What career should I pursue? Whom should I marry? Should I get married at all? We can, if
June 27, 2013
Questions about Our Sins and God”s Punishment
By Karen Rees Did God, in an effort to call America back to him, cause the severe drought that shriveled up crops in the Midwest last summer? According to a Christian”s well-written blog entry I stumbled across, the answer is “yes.” The blog writer quoted a few verses from Amos 4 to support her conclusion. In these verses, God said he caused a drought in the northern kingdom of Israel and struck their vineyards with blight, yet they had not returned to him. She ended by saying Christians need to do more to get abortion outlawed and bring our
October 4, 2012
A Day for Hope
By Mark A. Taylor My visit to Hope filled me with hope! At Hope International University in Fullerton, California, last week, I found students serious about their studies and passionate about finding God”s will for their lives. In the two classes I visited, students were engaged with the Bible study their professors presented. (Me, too! I left each session wishing I could stick with the professor all semester!) In the morning I met one young man who told me about his upbringing by missionary parents and his pursuit of God”s will for his life. Later he sought me out to
August 25, 2010
Life in All Its Fullness
By Michael Mack This is a sidebar to “A Heart for God“ ____ Life to the full, the abundant life, more and better life than you”ve ever dreamed of. You cannot lead a person, small group, or church to experience the fullness of God”s love and grace unless you are living it yourself. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus presents three ways to respond to his offer of abundant life: 1. Come to me . . . and I will give you rest. Life to the full comes only through Jesus. Your response to him is to seek God and stay connected to him.
August 20, 2006
Beyond the Puppet and Puppeteer
When prayers don’t unfold as expected, it can shake confidence in God’s power. Paul E. Boatman contrasts two common errors and points to God’s presence and work “in all things,” even in deep suffering.
