Thought For the Week

Dear Friends, As one who loves the Lord, I have sometimes been tempted to defend Him against angry and sometimes unfounded attacks from people. After all, isn’t it necessary to defend those we love? What I have discovered over the years is that in the case of those who need our help in defending them, the answer is yes. But when it comes to the all-knowing and all-powerful God who “laughs” when “the nations conspire and the people’s plot in vain” (Psalm 2:1-6), it’s a very different story. The thought of me defending such a God actually seems rather silly! Sort of like an ant thinking it needs to (or can!) defend an elephant! Do I challenge some ideas and thoughts people put forth? Yes. Do I now try to do it calmly and graciously? Yes. Why? Because oftentimes the person antagonistic to God is actually hoping for an angry tirade from believers. It helps them justify their unbelief. Many former church goers (I have found) actually received such a response when they expressed some

Dear Friends, You have all heard it before: “Wherever it is that your treasure lies, there will you find your heart as well” (Jesus, Matthew 6:19-21). It is true, of course, and Jesus suggests that knowing this should cause us to make sure we choose our treasures wisely. But how does one do that? How do we change the things our hearts treasure so that they line up with God’s will for our lives (since we know there are things we treasure that we should not)? There are things we value HIGHLY that distract, and mislead, and waste time, and deplete resources, and mean little to nothing in light of eternity. How, then, do we move to valuing what we should instead of what we shouldn’t, so our hearts might be in the right place? As believers our thoughts immediately go to things like prayer, grace, wisdom, Scriptural guidance, and others. Yet today I offer you one other thing we can add into that mix. It comes from Martin Copenhaver in his devotional book, “The Gospel in Miniature.

Dear Friends, One of the saddest events in this world is the death of a young child. Parental love and the dreams those parents have of playful times, and laughter-filled hugs, and hilarious tickle sessions, and watching that child learn and grow and blossom into an adult - makes the grief of their loss all the more painful. Who could not help but feel “they died too young” or “they died before their time.” And it doesn’t even have to be a child. It can be anyone whose life seems to have been unexpectedly cut short. Today’s entry by Tim Challies will not prevent one’s deep grief over such a loss, but it does give us a helpful way to process things as we go through the inevitable stages of grief. We don’t always know God’s plan, but thankfully He gives us illustrations in this world that can help us begin to understand. Enjoy. She Died Too Soon “It is engraved on many tombstones, inscribed in many cards, expressed in many obituaries: He died too soon. She was taken before