Posts from July 2024

The Refiner’s Fire

Malachi 3:3 says: “He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver.” This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study. That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention…

A Mind to Work

Then I Said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.” 18 And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me. So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then…

Proceed!

Earnest Shackleton and his men sailed for Antarctica on the very day that England declared war on Germany in WWI. At their first port of call the party sent word they would abandon their expedition and offered themselves and the ship to their country. But Shackleton received a cable from a man who could see the ultimate value of the venture even in the moment of a national struggle for survival. The message was a single word: “Proceed,” and it…

When You’re Lonely and Need a Friend

It was an emergency situation. At least it was for a 6-year-old Florida boy who felt like he needed to call 911 to report it. When the responding officer arrived, the little boy told him his emergency: he was lonely, and needed a friend. Officer White told him that he would be the boy’s friend, brought him a stuffed animal, and let him sit in the police car. Being lonely and needing a friend is a common occurrence. Knowing what…