Judges 5:31, “So may all your enemies perish, O LORD! But may your friends be like the sun as he shines in his might.”

In Philippians 2:25-30 Paul talks about his “brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister,” Epaphroditus. He says that Epaphroditus “nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.”

God invites Jeremiah (and by extension of an extension, us too) to be His mouth. To speak the Words of God. To deliver to the people in our lives the Voice of the Almighty.

This is the third of a series of devotionals discussing counseling in the local church. Dr. Timothy Lane of The Christian Counseling and Education Foundation (CCEF) teaches that there are “Six Unavoidable Facts.”

This is the first of a series of devotionals discussing counseling in the local church. Dr. Timothy Lane of The Christian Counseling and Education F”

This is the second of a series of devotionals discussing counseling in the local church. Dr. Timothy Lane of The Christian Counseling and Education Foundation (CCEF) teaches that there are “Six Unavoidable Facts.”

This is the first of a series of devotionals discussing counseling in the local church. Dr. Timothy Lane of The Christian Counseling and Education Foundation (CCEF) teaches that there are “Six Unavoidable Facts.”

No pastor or elder can read your Bible for you. And if you don't read the Bible for yourself your faith will stagnate and destabilize.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. (Psa 51:12-13)

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. (Psa 51:12-13)

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. (Psa 51:12-13)

The psalmist prays for a restored sense of the joyousness of salvation. He prays to be upheld with a willing spirit. Joy in our hearts and Eagerness in our spirits: that’s being alive!

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. (Psa 51:12-13)

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. (Psa 51:12-13)

But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. // I will thank you forever, because you have done it.I will wait for your name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly. (Psa 52:8-9)

he righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD, they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green to declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Psalm 48:12-14, Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation:

“This is God / Our God forever and ever / He will guide us forever.”

This week’s devotional is my synthesis of the sessions. How do we think rightly about technology? Can we use it well? How? This is a conversation we need to have more of and soon. Here's a start.

Leviticus 26 (of all places) lists beautiful, rich, descriptions of the ways in which God desires to bless His people, Israel.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness
to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)