Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence. It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ; it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience. We come to God (and to the revelation of God’s ways)…
A while back — I suppose it’s been a few months now — the water dispenser in our refrigerator stopped working. I don’t know what the problem was. The appliance isn’t even a year old. But it really wasn’t urgent enough to squeeze out anything on my “to do” list. I replaced a filter that…
The Friesen family went camping this week. I’d like to conjure an image of “Man v. Wild” but alas, a little cabin must and mildew is as wild as it got. I can say with some satisfaction that we did complete the Nebraska camper triathlon — sunburn, mosquito bites and ticks! We made a bit…
2Kings 18-19 tells the story of Hezekiah’s stand-off with Rabshakeh, field commander of Assyria’s army. Three important contextual observations lead us to a spiritual lesson: the crisis was preceded by Hezekiah’s idol bashing reforms Rabshakeh’s psychological warfare referenced that reform and used it as a means of intimidation Hezekiah saw the crisis as a challenge…