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1 Samuel 16:18 Then one of the servants answered and said, "Look, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a handsome person; and the Lord is with him." Are You Lacking? Dr. John Broadus, a distinguished professor and gifted preacher, was asked by a student to write in his autograph book. The young man was known as an outstanding scholar, but Dr. Broadus knew he was not a Christian. So

1 Kings 6:12-13 " Concerning this temple which you are building, if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, keep all My commandments, and walk in them, then I will perform My word with you, which I spoke to your father David. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel." The Comforter In 1858 Scottish missionary John G. Paton and his wife sailed for the New Hebrides. Three months after arriving on the island of Tanna, his wife d

Job 11:7 "Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty?" A Big God As the people of Job's day walked the earth, they likely didn't know that our world is 8,000 miles in diameter, with approximately 198,980,000 square miles on its surface. It is unlikely that they realized that this globe we call home is composed of 264 billion cubic miles. Most surely it was beyond their knowledge to compute that even though Earth is big, Saturn is 99

Genesis 16:5-6 Then Sarai said to Abram, "My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me." So Abram said to Sarai, "Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please." And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence. Who's in Charge? A writer for the Chicago Tribune observed, "Americans crave leadership, but what is it?" According to an

1 Kings 1:40 And all the people went up after him; and the people played the flutes and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth seemed to split with their sound. The Joy of the Lord A middle-aged schoolteacher invested her life savings in a business enterprise that turned out to be a swindle. When her investment disappeared and the wonderful dream was shattered, she went to the local office of the Better Business Bureau. "Why on earth didn't you come to us first?" they ask

Genesis 23:12-13 Then Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land; and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, "If you will give it, please hear me. I will give you money for the field; take it from me and I will bury my dead there." Guarding the Golden Years Before and after the Civil War, the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher was the most famous preacher in America. He drew crowds of thousands to his church in Brooklyn each week. He repor

Genesis 12:1-3 Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." The Greatest Calling An oil company needed a suave public relations man for its office in As

Genesis 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless." Complete in His Power A farmer and his son were working together in the field. The father told the boy to throw all the large stones he could find into a nearby ditch so they would not interfere with plowing. After working a long time, the son called out, "Dad, there's one rock here I can't move even though I've tried my hardest.

1 Kings 5:6 " Now therefore, command that they [the servants of Hiram] cut down cedars for me from Lebanon; and my servants will be with your servants, and I will pay you wages for your servants according to whatever you say. For you know there is none among us who has skill to cut timber like the Sidonians." Teamwork Don Bennett, a Seattle businessman, decided he wanted to climb Washington's Mount Rainier. It's a stiff climb to the peak of the 14,410-foot summit, but so many

1 Samuel 17:14-15 David was the youngest. And the three oldest followed Saul. But David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. Faithful in Small Things Little things can make a big difference. In the 1968 Winter Olympics, Frenchman Jean-Claude Killy made a sweep of the men's Alpine events, but it was nip and tuck. He won the downhill by 8/100ths of a second, the slalom by 9/100ths. By comparison, the giant slalom was a rout, with Kil

Isaiah 28:16 Therefore thus says the Lord God: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily." Building on the Cornerstone Historically, the cornerstone was the most important part of any building. The total weight of an edifice rested on this particular stone, which, if removed, would collapse the whole structure. The cornerstone was also the key to keeping the walls straight.

Genesis 11:31 And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. The First Step The Chinese philosopher Lao-Tse once said, "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." While we all tend to focus on the destination, the time it will take to complete our journey or the i

1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." Looking on the Heart Outward appearances can be deceiving. An airline captain who flew international routes also ran a small filling station near his home. Between trips abroad, he got a kick out of changing tires and pumping gas.

Job 2:9 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!" Don't Give Up and Don't Give In Some of Andrew Jackson's boyhood friends just couldn't understand how he became a famous general and then the president of the United States. They knew of other men who had greater talent but who never made it as far as Andrew did. One of Jackson's friends said, "Why, Jim Brown, who lived right down the road from Jackson, was not only smarter but h

Read 2 Samuel 19:7-8 "Now therefore, arise, go out and speak comfort to your servants. For I swear by the Lord, if you do not go out, not one will stay with you this night. And that will be worse for you than all the evil that has befallen you from your youth until now." Then the king arose and sat in the gate. And they told all the people, saying, "There is the king, sitting in the gate." So all the people came before the king. For everyone of Israel had fled to his tent. A

Read Joshua 14:6-7 Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him: "You know the word which the Lord said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart." Dr. Abraham Maslow, famed research analyst, estimated that the average American meets o

Genesis 17:10 "This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised." Genesis 17:22-23 Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him. Su

Read 1 Kings 3:8-9 "And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?" A lack of understanding can cause a great deal of embarrassment. President Coolidge once invited some friends from Vermont to dine at the White House. They were w

Read Exodus 18:22 And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you. Andrew C. Davison wrote about an encounter with Dr. Albert Schweitzer at Lambarene, on the banks of the Ogowe River. It was about noon and the sun was beating down mercilessly as a group walked up a hill with Dr. Schweitzer. Sudden

Read Job 7:6 "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle." Men have always had a love affair with speed. The faster they can go--first with horses, then with cars and now with space shuttles--the happier they are. Speed has increased to the point where we have moved from measuring events by the calendar (years, months, weeks) to often measuring them in nanoseconds (one billionth of a second) to reflect how fast things are moving. And what's more, each increase in speed is us

Isaiah 11:1-2 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Rod of Jesse During World War II, Hitler's bombers rained destruction upon London from the skies. Over 15,000 people lost their lives and many parts of the city were reduced to rubble. Yet when spring came, an amazing thing happened. Beautiful wildflowers, many of them thought extinct, sprang up in the midst of the devastation. Botanists concluded that the seeds ha

2 Samuel 24:24 Then the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. An Oxymoron An oxymoron is two words put together that seem to contradict each other. Our language is sprinkled with such paradoxical phrases, although we often are not consciously aware of them. For example, we talk

Joshua 8:1 Then the Lord said to Joshua: "Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed; take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land." Solid As the Rock Gibraltar is a small peninsula of the southern coast of Spain near the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. Covering most of this peninsula is an enormous mass of limestone 1,398 feet high. This rocky mass has become a symbol of stability a

Genesis 16:1-2 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her." And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. Running Ahead of God A friend went to visit the great preacher Phillips Brooks and found him pacing the floor like a caged lion. His friend asked, "What's the trouble,