Articles for tag: Wilderness

August 15, 2020

Wandering through the Coronavirus Wilderness

How the Church Can Serve the Most Vulnerable in Our Spiritual Families By Tom Ellsworth Thirty-five years ago, Indiana issued a license plate with the slogan, “Wander Indiana.” I understood the invitation to casually tour the state for all it has to offer, but the wording felt more like an invitation to lazy futility. Can you fathom what it was like for the Israelites to spend 40 years plodding through a barren land on a journey that could have been accomplished in a matter of weeks? And many of them knew they would never set foot in Canaan, which only

December 31, 2019

Stuart Powell

Devotionals

New Things

By Stuart Powell A spirit of optimism permeates our culture at the beginning of every year. The idea of newness is everywhere. However, it seems the “newness” quickly fades. Our government is still in strife. Our boss still makes unreasonable demands. Most of our resolutions are quickly broken. The temptations and sins that plagued us last year haven’t vanished. The old stuff that caused us to long for last year to end looks amazingly similar to the new stuff in our New Year. Israelites in Isaiah’s day faced similar struggles against the sinfulness of their age. They looked to God

December 23, 2017

Christian Standard

Devotionals

What Can I Give Him?

This Christmas essay originally appeared in the December 18/25, 2011, issue of Christian Standard. ___ By Caleb Kaltenbach Every Christmas I struggle with the same thing: what in the world do I give my wife? Do I get her shoes, clothes, jewelry, a massage, or what? Maybe this is a better question: what gift will I give Jesus this season? In Luke 1, we see the birth of a child who would be a gift to Jesus. In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his