You’ve all seen a movie or read a book about adventurers like Indiana Jones or someone who spend lots of time and effort trying to find the “key” to a puzzle that will open a secret door or unlock a valuable treasure. The people in the movie or story will often try many different things…
Author: Joshua Goodling
Why Worry, When You Can Pray?
When speaking about trusting God and not allowing things to worry him, George Mueller said, “Though all believers in the Lord Jesus are not called upon to establish orphan houses, schools for poor children, etc., and trust in God for means to run them; yet all believers, according to the will of God concerning them…
He’s Still GOD!
There’s a Southern Gospel song that the chorus goes like this, For the God on the mountain is still God in the valley. When things go wrong, He’ll make it right. And the God of the good times is still God in the bad times. The God of the day is still God in the…
Blood Pressure
A couple of years ago, my company offered a health fair in our office. Nurses and medical people came into the office and they were checking people’s blood pressure, weight, and other physical health things. Over the past few weeks, I had noticed my heart beating a little bit strong, so I went to the…
Who Has Your Heart?
David wrote in Psalm 119:10-11 “With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments. Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.” He knew the value of a heart that is COMPLETELY surrendered to Almighty God and His Word. People often…
Do You LOVE Him?
Suppose for the sake of illustration that we have a large tumor growing on our back. It’s the size of a basketball. And it makes it impossible for us to stand up straight or walk right. It makes it very difficult for us to sleep at night, and overall it drags us down in life….
Safe With God
I can remember well the scene. I was in the sixth grade, and we were moving from West Virginia to Florida. It was Winter, and cold in the West Virginia mountains as we traveled down a two-lane road pulling a U-Haul trailer. The roads were icy and slippery, and the trailer and wind were making…
God’s Amazing Love…
I feel the words to John W. Peterson’s song; “O Glorious Love” really reveal how amazing God’s love for us is: In my darkness Jesus found me, Touched my eyes and made me see. Broke sin’s chains that long had bound me. Gave me life and liberty Oh amazing Truth to ponder, He whom angel…
Good Dog vs. Bad Dog
One of the unfortunate things about life in this wicked world is the fight that we as Christians face daily between our flesh and our desire to please God. Paul wrote about this in his letter to the church at Rome, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what…
A Dolphin
I read with interest today a story in the news about a dolphin who could not help himself, so it swam to the only source of help it could find. The story was about a dolphin off the coast of Hawaii. The dolphin had become entangled in a fishing line. The fishing line came from…
More Than We Need
In this world today great emphasis is placed on material possessions, wealth, and fame. We all want the nicest new car, a beautiful home, the finest of clothing, the latest electronic gadgets and devices, etc., yet NONE of these things will EVER bring true peace and joy. It boggles my mind how many times I…
How’s Your Story Coming?
You know the feeling when you’re watching a movie or reading a book, and the person in the story is about to do something or make a choice that you know isn’t going to turn out good, and you just want to YELL at them NO!! STOP!!! DON’T DO THAT!!! And we even sometimes find…
Loving What Is Worthless…
In Psalm 4, David asks “How long will you love what is worthless?” Most of us spend way too much of our time and our lives chasing after those things that are worthless in the end. Many people would argue, “Well, I’m just chasing the American Dream!” And there was a time, when I too…
Do You Know God’s Word?
When I was in college, I remember a man coming and giving a dramatic recitation of the book of Genesis. He had memorized over half of the entire Bible, and he recited from memory the entire book of Genesis with dramatic emphasis added to various stories and sections of the book. I was quite impressed…
Talk About Jesus
Many years ago, an elderly farmer was in Washington DC, visiting his son, who was a United States Senator. When his son introduced him to the visiting Ambassador to Belgium, the farmer asked, “Sir, are you a Christian?” His son, being greatly embarassed, quickly changed the subject. A few months later, the farmer passed away….
What Do You Think of Jesus?
In Matthew 22:41-42 Jesus is having a discussion with the “religious leaders” and He asked them a simple question: “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?”. Of course, the Pharisees, who were false teachers in that day, didn’t want to believe that Jesus…
Three Trees…
A fictional story goes, that once there were three trees on a hill in the woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the first tree said, “Someday I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems. I could be decorated with intricate carving and everyone…
When God Is Silent
Sometimes in our lives it seems God is completely silent. We pray and nothing happens. We read God’s Word and don’t find what we’re looking for. We seek for answers and seem to get nothing. We read in John chapter 11, the story about Lazarus. The story starts out, “Now a certain man was sick,…
We Have Rejected GOD!
A mall shooting in Oregon leaves 3 dead and then a school shooting in Connecticut leaves over 20 dead, most of them just young children. Where was God? Why did He allow these things to happen? I saw a question that asked, “Why didn’t God stop this?” and the answer given was “Oh, right, He…
Be The Light People Need!
A Tennessee pastor doesn’t believe in chance encounters. To him, every contact is an opportunity to share the Gospel. When he answers the phone, for example, and hears the person on the other end saying, “Sorry, I must have the wrong number, “ He responds: “Maybe not!” Usually there is a pause on the line,…
Danger: Stay Away!
Long before the days of the automobile, when the wealthy traveled by horse and carriage, there was a very rich man who’s house was high on top of a mountain. His carriage driver was getting up in years, and the man knew he would have to find a new driver soon. So, he put an…
True Satisfaction…
You may have read the story in the Bible about the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well outside her city. When she offered Him water from that earthly well, Jesus told her He could offer her “water” that she could drink of and NEVER be thirsty again. Of course, He was talking about…
You shall call his name Jesus
“He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpentry shop until he was thirty, and then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. When the tide of popular opinion turned against him, his friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies. He was…
If You Seek Him…
In the 8th chapter of the book of Acts, we find an interesting story about the Apostle Philip and an Ethiopian enuch. If you’re not familiar with the story, let me give you a brief summary of it. Philip was one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. And the Bible doesn’t give the name…
I Wish…
How many times have we ruined an afternoon or even an entire day by allowing what we don’t have or what we’ve lost and can’t get back eat away at our thoughts? We see a person driving a new sports car, and we think, “Wow…I WISH I could afford that!”, and then that thought turns…
Give THANKS!!
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” This exact verse is found 5 times in the book of Psalms. Psalm 106:1, 107:1, 118:1, 118:29, and 136:1 Most of the time we fail to stop and thank God for His amazing goodness and kindness to us. And then,…
What If….
The story is told of a mail carrier who lived in a village in Europe that had many rivers and waterways running through it. The mail carrier would use a canoe on his daily route to deliver the mail. Many people over the years asked him why he didn’t wear a life preserver or at…
Give Him Everything!
Let’s suppose for the sake of illustration that we own a private jet. And we know a some other people who own private jets as well, but none of us know how to fly them. So, some of the other jet owners hire pilots for their jets and tell us awesome stories about how they…
For God So Loved The World…
Fritz Kreisler was a world-famous violinist who earned a fortune with his concerts and compositions, but he generously gave most of it away. So, when he discovered an exquisite violin on one of his trips, he wasn’t able to buy it. Later, having raised enough money to meet the asking price, he returned to the…
Nothing To Fear
Psalm 34:6-10 says, “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them. O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! O fear…