We cooperate with what He is doing within us by yielding to prompts and urges that whisper things like…

The passage also indicates that God recognizes that carrying all this stuff a great distance will be problematic so He tells them that if it’s too far, they should “exchange it for money, and bind the money in [their] hand and go to the place which the LORD [their] God chooses.”

Then He says a very surprising thing.

What if God actually wants you to enjoy yourself?

To them it appeared they were simply living life and doing what they wanted to do. They didn’t think of their conduct as something meriting favor from God.

The Gospel is the good news that everything required for us to be made acceptable to and compatible with God (righteous) has been accomplished in Jesus Christ.

In Hebrew thought, this passage was sometimes taken to mean that not only do the dead remember nothing, but that they are even forgotten by God. However, when we are faced with a question like this, we need to read a larger portion of the book and keep in mind what the rest of the Scriptures say.

Everything about this place is regulated by the rule of law. Here, people get what they pay for. Here they expect to get what they deserve. Here they only have what they earn. Here laws must be obeyed or else. Life is chasing a carrot while being threatened with a stick.

You may be very tiny relative to the world, but Christ in you is irritatingly noticeable and cannot be ignored.

The world defines peace as the absence of conflict.
Father's peace is much more profound than that.

According to Oxford Languages, the definition of a heretic is "a person believing in or practicing religious heresy" or "a person holding an opinion at odds with what is generally accepted." They give this example, "the Vatican branded Galileo a heretic for saying the Earth revolved around the sun."

So, by that definition, I am a heretic too, and I'm OK with that because the Scriptures agree with me.

I am not a fan of so-called “prayer chains” for a number of reasons. It has been the experience of many that participating in prayer chains produces a kind of heaviness. Often there is a sense of obligation rather than conversing with our Father out of real concern.

In tiny ways as we go about our daily lives, we naturally spread the Love of God. People see more than we realize and seeds that have the potential to change the landscape of people’s lives are planted.

People may sometimes shout at their dogs or otherwise treat their dogs poorly. Dogs keep no record of the wrongs they have suffered. People may occasionally forget to feed their dogs or neglect them in other ways. Dogs endure it all and continue believing the best about their people.

No one was ever saved by obedience to the Law. That's because upholding the covenant of the Law is impossible. Those like King David, who realized this, gave up on the idea that they could keep the covenant, and instead simply trusted God to do what He promised--even when they couldn't see how it would happen.

When we are in extreme pain and emotional turmoil, we feel and know that we are at the end of ourselves. In those moments all we can do is place everything we're facing into the hands of the One who is Love and depend on His faithfulness to bring us through the valley.

If the Old Testament makes anything clear, it makes it clear that God does not dwell in unclean unholy places. It also makes clear (as does the Revelation) that God dwells among His people. If we are not ACTUALLY righteous, holy, blameless, then He CANNOT live in us.

We currently live in a “famine” bringing uncertainty, insecurity, and unrest. We live in a seemingly desolate land filled with tribulation. Things look pretty bad for us here in the valley of the shadow of death.

We are free from fear for our eternal lives. Our inheritance is guaranteed.

Gentle restoration is Father’s way.

The questions Jesus asked helped Peter see his weakness.