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Exodus 15:27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters. Does Jesus Care? Almost a hundred years ago, a minister was plagued with ongoing trials and discouragements. When he thought he no longer could stand it, Rev. Frank Graeff remembered 1 Peter 5:7 , which says, "casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." A new joy and peace encouraged his soul and he penned a song in which every sta

Genesis 15:2-4 But Abram said, "Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!" And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." I Wonder Henry Drummond, a 19th-century Scottish evangelist, observed, "Christ never failed to

1 Kings 11:14 , 23 Now the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was a descendant of the king in Edom. And God raised up another adversary against him, Rezon the son of Eliadah, who had fled from his lord, Hadadezer king of Zobah. Blessed Adversary In his book Pain: The Tool of the Wounded Surgeon, Philip Yancey reminds us that pain can serve a definite purpose in our lives. He cites Dr. Paul Brand, one of the world's foremost experts on leprosy,

1 Kings 3:12-13 " Behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days." Superabundant Blessings Howard Hendricks, professor emeritus at Dallas Theological Seminary, told a story about a coupl

Genesis 22:9-10 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. Making Sense Pablo Picasso was the most famous painter of the 20th century. His paintings often broke with the traditional notion of beauty and harmony. When questioned about his unusual artistic style, the

Read Numbers 13:1-2 , 16 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them. These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua. The British naval hero Lord Nelson took his responsibilities very seriously. During his life he conscientiously served his nation

2 Samuel 7:12-13 "When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." Dealing With Disappointments Two paraplegics were in the news at about the same time. Kenneth Wright, 24, was a high school football star and later an avid wrestler. A broken neck sustained in a wrestling matc

1 Samuel 18:22-23 And Saul commanded his servants, "Communicate with David secretly, and say, 'Look, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you. Now therefore, become the king's son-in-law.'" So Saul's servants spoke those words in the hearing of David. And David said, "Does it seem to you a light thing to be a king's son-in-law, seeing I am a poor and lightly esteemed man?" True Humility Sammy Morris was a devoted Christian from Africa who came to America to

2 Samuel 18:33 Then the king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept. And as he went, he said thus: "O my son Absalom--my son, my son Absalom--if only I had died in your place! O Absalom my son, my son!" Death of a Child The late Joe Bayly wrote about the death of the young from firsthand experience. He lost three children: one at 18 days, after surgery; another at 5 years, with leukemia; the third at 18 years, after a sledding accident complicate

Read 1 Kings 8:27 " But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!" Years ago when the city fathers of New York contemplated the future growth of their city, they plotted the streets and numbered them from the center outward. At the time, New York consisted of only six or seven streets. In their planning maps, they projected how large they thought the city might grow. Reaching

2 Samuel 12:13 So David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." And Nathan said to David, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. " Confess Your Sins Early in 1993 British police accused two ten-year-old boys of the brutal murder of two-year-old James Bulger. The two boys pleaded their innocence. During the two-week trial the young defendants responded to questioning with noticeable inconsistencies. The climax of the trial came when the parents of o

Job 14:14 "If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, till my change comes." To Live Again The Romanian weekly Tinerama reported that a woman fainted when she opened her front door and found her husband standing there. It all started when a man named Neagu choked on a fish bone, stopped breathing and collapsed. The family doctor, knowing Neagu's heart condition, didn't think twice about proclaiming the 71-year-old dead of a heart attack.

Joshua 5:13-15 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, "Are You for us or for our adversaries?" So He said, "No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, "What does my Lord say to His servant?" The "What Man" While watching his fathe

1 Kings 8:33-34 "When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and when they turn back to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication to You in this temple, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to their fathers." No Other Way In The Essential Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson, the cartoon character Calvin says to his tiger friend, Hobbes, "I

Read Numbers 14:28-30 "Say to them, 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: the carcasses of you who have murmured against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.'" It was a stormy night in Birmingh

Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Strong and Courageous A child had to walk each evening past a dark, spooky house. Some adult friends tried to give him courage. One handed him a good-luck charm to ward off the ghosts. Another installed a light at a particularly dark corner near the house. A third took a more spiritual approach, saying, "It's sinful to be af

1 Kings 1:5 Now Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, "I will be king"; and he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. The Would-Be King Self-centeredness keeps us from truly caring about others. One of the saddest characters in American literature is Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's classic play Death of a Salesman. Poor Willy. He was always going to make that "big sale." He was going to bring home a fortune one day--then peo

2 Chronicles 7:14 "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." Prescription for Revival Richard Owen Roberts observed, "There is a sense in which revival is like a prairie fire ignited by a bolt of lightning from the heavens. Without organization, advertising or even sometimes human leadership, revivals have alte

Daniel 9:4-5 And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments." Corporate Guilt American culture places a great deal of emphasis on the individual. Our heritage admires the hardy pioneer who single-hand

2 Samuel 24:2-3 So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, "Now go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people." And Joab said to the king, "Now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundredfold more than there are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king desire this thing?" Look at Me A man went to a shoe store to purchase a new pair

Genesis 14:22-23 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have lifted my hand to the Lord, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, "I have made Abram rich." Making It God's Way People often want to get rich quickly. In 1989 John Bennett established the Foundation for New Era Philanthropy. Under the guise of a non-profit foundation, he offer

1 Samuel 22:1-2 David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him. Company of the Unfit When Gen. George Washington gathered his armies to fight against the redcoats, they came fro

Read 1 Kings 11:40-41 Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon? In his book The Message in Your Emotions, Wayne McDill reflects, "Emotions cloud our normal thinking processes and often cause us to react in ways we shouldn't. We say things in a

Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. The Key to Good Success My local newspaper reported that a man and woman who tried to hop a Union Pacific train from North Platte, Nebraska, to Omaha were being held in Dawson County jail on trespass charges. But the coupl