Tag: Response to God
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Two Trees, One Path
In the Garden of Eden, God planted two trees: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Both trees were his. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was not the devil’s creation. Satan simply used it as a tool to draw Adam and Eve away from…
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Something New
(2-minute read) I’ve been trying to study to understand the crowd’s beliefs as Jesus spoke. Often, he put together what they already knew in a simple way that gave them a greater understanding. But he also taught something they found fresh and new. He spoke of the Kingdom of God. Jesus spoke to crowds about…
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View From the Tree
(2-minute read) It started out as a matter of curiosity. The reaction of the people to Jesus’s sermon on the mount seems different from what I expected, and I wanted to know why. What I discovered surprised me and has changed my life. Jesus was on the earth at a unique time in Jewish history.…
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Stay
(3-minute read) A week ago, our son, Stephen, asked if we would keep his dog, Luna, while he moved to a new apartment. He did an interesting thing. When he dropped off Luna, as he was leaving amongst all of the “be a good girl” comments, he said in a commanding voice, “STAY.” When he…
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Self-Deception
(7-minute read) The most difficult deception for me to detect is self-deception. In 1970, after only about a year of studying spiritual things, I felt the Lord wanted me to buy a reel-to-reel tape recorder, but I didn’t know why. I had never owned one and knew nothing about them. A man in our Bible…
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Genuine
(2-minute read) I discovered early in my work career that I needed to motivate myself. Often, I would decide something I wanted to do differently but just get caught up in the day’s routine and forget about the change I wanted to make. I started writing little notes and leaving them for myself. I’ve discovered…
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Obedience
(3-minute read) I asked God, “Lord, how much obedience do you want?” It took a while, but when the answer came, it was more involved than just complete, absolute, and total. When I was a kid, my father expected obedience. In his case, it was complete, absolute, and total obedience. But it only covered what…
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Dreams
(3-minute read) Where do my dreams come from? I don’t mean the ones when I’m sleeping but the dreams I have when I’m wide awake. After my sophomore year of high school, I asked my parents if I could attend art school during the summer break. There was something about art that always drew me.…
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Captive
(6-minute read) I attended an elementary school in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, when I was eight. After school, I would take a city bus back to my neighborhood. One day on the bus, a man started talking to me about the YMCA and everything to do there. He asked me if I wanted to go with…
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The Prayer Slump
(3-minute read) There was a time when I felt that my prayers were less effective than they used to be. I wasn’t sure what had changed or how I had possibly gotten off. I decided to return to the beginning, and one day I asked the Lord, “Lord, teach me to pray.” The first instruction…
Walking the path 