One of the saddest verses in the Bible is found in John 1:10. It says, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him.” Jesus Christ came to this world – the world He created and loved enough to die for, yet just as in…
Author: Joshua Goodling
Amazing Grace!!!
I just watched and listened to an awesome video on YouTube of people singing Amazing Grace on a street car. Every time I hear the song Amazing Grace, it brings tears to my eyes as I think of how unworthy I am of His love and yet how AMAZING God’s grace is toward us who…
Don’t Rush
In 1 Samuel 13, we read the story about Saul who was the King of Israel before David. Saul and his army were fighting the Philistine armies. The Bible tells us in verse 5 that the armies against Israel were more than could be numbered, so things looked rather bad for the nation of Israel….
Fan or Friend?
Jesus said in John 15:14, “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Many people claim to know Jesus Christ and claim to be followers of Him, yet they seem to have no problem disobeying His commandments and living contrary to His Word, even when they know what is right and what…
Give Me Your Heart
Proverbs 23:26 instructs, “My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.” I like what the Bible commentator Adam Clarke (1762–1832) writes about this verse: “This is the speech of God to every human soul; give thy affections to God, so as to love him with all thy heart, soul, mind,…
Salt and Light
The Bible describes the Christian life as Salt and Light in the following verses: “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the…
Are You On The Right Path?
In Psalm 119:59-60 David wrote, “I considered my ways and turned my feet to Your testimonies. I hastened and did not delay to keep Your commandments.” He stopped and looked seriously at his life, at the path he was headed down and what lay ahead. The more he looked at his own life, the more…
Ruined By A Friend
One of the saddest stories in the Bible comes to us in 2 Samuel chapter 13. The story is about Amnon and his half-sister Tamar. According to the Bible, Tamar was quite beautiful, and Amnon was in love with her. In fact, he was so much in love with her, that it made him ill….
How To Listen
In 1 Samuel 3, we read the story about Samuel as a young boy. During the night, God spoke to Samuel, but Samuel didn’t know who it was that was speaking – he thought it was Eli the priest. So Samuel goes in and wakes Eli asking him what he wanted, but Eli hadn’t called…
Are You Listening?
In John 8, Jesus was speaking to a group of Pharisees who did not believe He was truly the Son of God. Notice what He says in verses 42-47, “Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not…
Grooves In The Pavement
A lot of highways have grooves in the pavement on the shoulder of the roadway to alert you if you start to drift off the road. If you’re tired or distracted and not paying attention to the road and start to drift off the roadway your tires hit the grooves in the pavement and you…
Close, But Not Close Enough
I enjoy watching a good football game. I remember a game once where a player got the ball and ran over half the field in what would have been the final score that would put his team on top and make them the winners, but he got too distracted by the excitement and threw the…
Such Amazing Love
“When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’ ” (Matthew 27:54) When Jesus Christ died on the cross, the earth quaked, the sky turned dark, and the Bible tells…
True Faith
J. C. Ryle (May 1816 – June 1900), wrote the following: There is a faith which is vain and useless, as well as a faith which justifies and saves. How shall a man know whether he has true saving faith? The thing may be found out! The Ethiopian may be known by the color of…
God’s Presence
ABWE Mission Board told the following story in their recent newsletter: Pastor Victor Morales started a gang outreach ministry after he noticed the rising influence of youth gangs near his church in Nicaragua. Victor helped 13 young men leave their gangs and start a personal relationship with Jesus. These men became active members of the…
Is It Possible?
I was reading the current issue of Popular Science magazine last night, and on almost the last page, I found a short 1 page article entitled, “Is A Virgin Birth Possible?”. The short article went on to scientifically explain how a virgin birth was completely impossible for humans. While the article didn’t specifically mention the…
It’s A Relationship!
In our digital/electronic age, people can find out information about other people VERY easily (almost too easily perhaps), and people especially know stuff about celebrities such as movie stars, musicians, and sport stars. It seems hardly a day goes by without a news story breaking about some incident that happened in the life of one…
He Cares
I spoke this morning to a group of students at a local Middle School. As I usually do, I laid out the shirt and trousers I was going to wear last night, so I wouldn’t have to get up earlier. The shirt I had put out last night was a plaid buttoned casual shirt, however…
I Have Learned To Be Content…
A gentleman going along a small country road, met another man to whom he courteously wished, “Good morning!” “I have never had a bad one!” replied the man. “That is good, I hope that you will always be so fortunate.” “I am never unfortunate.” was the reply. “Well, I wish you may always be happy!”…
A Gift You Can Always Give – Kindness
One day, Christopher Kerr was walking home from high school when he noticed a new student from his class also walking home from school, but carrying ALL his books with him. Christopher wondered why anyone would bring all of their books home on a weekend. Why study when there were parties to be had and…
Friend of Sinners?
It seems many people have lost or never known the true meaning of friendship in today’s world. Many times I’ve talked to people who say of a past friendship, “No, I’m not their friend anymore. They did or didn’t do this or that, so I stopped being their friend.” A lot of people today base…
Priceless
I watched a video online recently about how they hand build the Bentley motorcars. It was amazing all of the extra time, energy, and effort they put into one of these cars making sure ever thing is absolutely perfect down to the last detail. The video stated that they spend over 13 hours just hand…
Focused On Jesus
When I worked at a Christian camp and retreat center up in Michigan for a couple of years, we had one of those old reel to reel projectors that we would use to show Christian films to campers. You had to take the end of the film from one reel, feed it through the projector…
Love One Another
The elevators in my office building have small monitors in them that display some of the latest business news and other information. Recently, as I was riding the elevator to my office floor, an alarming news item flashed on the screen. It said, “A new study by a university research team shows that people who…
Stop Riding The Surf
If you’ve ever stood on a beach, it’s mesmerizing to stand there and watch the surf of ocean water coming in and going back out, coming in and going back out, coming in and going back out. That’s all it does all day it seems, never getting anywhere, just coming in and then going back…
Looking For Happiness?
Everyone in life wants to be happy, and through out history man has given multitudes of opinions on how and where to find happiness. Mark Twain said there are three things that bring happiness, “good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience.” The American essayist Agnes Repplier said, “It is not easy to find happiness…
Don’t Give Up The Fight…
One of the easiest things to do in our walk with Jesus Christ is to get lazy, to get too busy with life in this world, to get disappointed about things, or to even get discouraged and slowly give up spending time with God each day, slowly give up seeking Him with all our hearts,…
Where Are You Headed?
Let’s say we are in Atlanta, and we make a decision that we want to go to Miami. So, we pack all of our bags, fill the car with gas, and tell all of our friends and neighbors, “I’m going to Miami!”. Then, we get on Interstate 75 and head north. We will end up…
Follow Jesus!
I was reading Psalm 4 yesterday. Verse 2 in the NASB version says: “O sons of men…How long will you love what is worthless?” Why is it that even though we know Jesus Christ is the ONLY source of true happiness, that we keep insisting on chasing after things that are worthless? Things that will…
Let God Be God
Lots of people claim to give God control of their lives yet it’s like they say, “Okay, God you can do whatever you want with my life, I just need to give final approval before you do anything.” We too often claim to want to follow Him, but only as long as He doesn’t send…