Born for a Purpose

Prayer of Thanksgiving God of all blessings, source of all life, giver of all grace: We thank you for the gift of life: for the breath that sustains life, for the food of this earth that nurtures life, for the love of family and friends without which there would be no life. We thank you for the mystery of creation: for the beauty that the eye can see, for the joy that the ear may hear, for the unknown that we cannot behold filling the universe with wonder, for the expanse of space that draws us beyond the definitions of our selves. We thank you for setting us in communities: for families who nurture our becoming, for friends who love us by choice, for companions at work, who share our burdens and daily tasks, for strangers who welcome us into their midst, for people from other lands who call us to grow in understanding, for children who lighten our moments with delight, for the unborn, who offer us hope for the future. We thank you for this day: for life and one more day to love, f...

Exodus 40:1-33 The people build and complete the Tabernacle, following all of God’s instructions. Detailed Obedience Read Moses proceeded to do everything just as the Lord had commanded him. ( Exodus 40:16 ) Reflect God told Moses how to build the Tabernacle. Moses carefully obeyed God’s instructions to the smallest detail. He didn’t make a reasonable facsimile from God’s description but an exact copy. Moses didn’t do all the work himself either; he involved others, delegating jobs in order to get everything done. God allows people to participate with him in carrying out his will. We should follow Moses’ example and be conscientious about our obedience. If God has told you to do something, do it, do it right, and do it completely. The physical care of the Tabernacle required a long list of tasks, and each was important to the work of God’s house. Many tasks can seem unimportant, but they can be made holy when they are done for God. They can be vital to the ministry of the ...

MEN OF THE BIBLE Naphtali, Nephthalim [Năph'talī, Nĕph'tha lĭm]— obtained by wrestling . The sixth son of Jacob and second by Bilhah, Rachel’s maid. Rachel gave her son his name because she had wrestled in prayer for God’s favor and blessing ( Gen. 30:8 ; 35:25 ). The tribe that descended from Naphtali bears his name ( Num. 1:15 , 42 ). The Man Who Lacked Self-Control In the last words of Jacob ( Gen. 49:21 ), the patriarch speaks of Naphtali as “a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words”—a fluent orator but as erratic as the wild gazelle. Henry Thorne wrote of him, He is gifted undoubtedly, but he has no self-control. He will scamper through life aimlessly and without a goal. His uncontrolled energy may some day be his ruin. He may possibly leap over a fence, but he may also jump into a ditch. Byron was gifted, but of him it has been said— He laid his hand upon the ocean’s main, And played familiar with his hoary locks. He was a man of brilliant talent and magni...

Enoch – A Man Who Did Not Die Enoch holds a rare distinction in the Bible: He did not die. Instead, God "took him away." Scripture does not reveal much about this remarkable man. We find his story in Genesis 5, in a long list of the descendants of Adam. Only a short sentence, "Enoch walked faithfully with God," in Genesis 5:22 and repeated in Genesis 5:24 reveals why he was so special to his Creator. In this wicked period before the Flood, most men did  not  walk faithfully with God. They walked their own path, the crooked way of sin. Enoch did not keep silent about the sin around him. Jude says Enoch prophesied about those evil people: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him." (Jude 1:14-15, NIV) Enoch walked in f...

Receive His Forgiveness What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  —Romans 6:1 KJV We often have very strong feelings and emotions that we don’t seem to be able to control! The truth is, you don’t have to make decisions based on your feelings! You have a free will, and you can choose to believe God’s Word more than you believe how you feel at the time. When you begin to live by the Word of God and what you know through Him instead of how you feel, your feelings will eventually change and line up with the Word. Satan used guilt to steal from me for years, which was often false guilt because much of the time I had nothing to be guilty for. I had repented, asked God to forgive me, and even believed that He had forgiven me. And yet I would still live my life feeling guilty and badly. I carried the burden of guilt everywhere that I went. I often said, “I did not feel right if I did not feel wrong.” At times I even felt very spiritual because I alwa...