Steven Wales

DEVASTATION CAN LEAD PEOPLE TO JESUS. Psalm 83:13-18.

Good times can cause people to reflect on God and His goodness. But those with hearts encased in stone will not be persuaded by good times, no matter how amazing. Yet God can reach anyone. He can even reach the skeptic and the hard-hearted. How? Through suffering. There is no resistance God cannot break, ifContinue reading “DEVASTATION CAN LEAD PEOPLE TO JESUS. Psalm 83:13-18.”

“Let’s kill all the lawyers.”

Who are our heroes? Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, and Nolan Ryan? Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk? Celebrity actors or “influencers”? Political and military leaders? Let’s ask the question another way. Who is most critical to the survival of our society? We do not depend on entertainers for survival. Rich businessmen are only slightlyContinue reading ““Let’s kill all the lawyers.””

You Can Only Harvest What You Plant. Jeremiah 44:22; Galatians 6:7.

You can’t plant seeds of nights and weekends surfing social media and harvest a crop of good grades. You can’t plant seeds of promiscuity and harvest a long and happy marriage. You can’t plant lazy seeds and harvest riches. You can’t plant smoking seeds and harvest healthy lungs. You can’t plant seeds of gluttony andContinue reading “You Can Only Harvest What You Plant. Jeremiah 44:22; Galatians 6:7.”

HOW DO YOU KNOW GOD’S VOICE? Jeremiah 42:3,6.

Dancers and athletes work from their “core,” actors from their “center,” singers from the “diaphragm,” and golfers talk about swinging from the “thoracic spine,” or the “chest.” Hearing from God is like that: He speaks to a place deep down and it boils up from there, filling your whole body. God speaks in your bones,Continue reading “HOW DO YOU KNOW GOD’S VOICE? Jeremiah 42:3,6.”

BE READY FOR ANYTHING.

The worst thing that happened to the Israelites was the Babylonian captivity. Long after they were rescued from the Pharaoh and brought to the Promised Land, after David killed Goliath and God established David’s kingdom and Solomon’s temple—generations passed and the people got worse and worse. Remember how they left Egypt and built a goldenContinue reading “BE READY FOR ANYTHING.”

NO HARD HEARTS. NO STIFF NECKS. 2 Chronicles 36:16.

Hebrews 3:15 says, “Today, if you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts….” Do you know what a hard heart is? Similarly, Isaiah says the people have necks of iron and foreheads of brass. Isaiah 43:3-5. Imagine a mule with a neck of iron. His owner will have to beat him all day. TheContinue reading “NO HARD HEARTS. NO STIFF NECKS. 2 Chronicles 36:16.”

THE SABBATH AND THE QUARANTINE. 2 Chronicles 36:21.

As a baseball dad, I wrestle with the Sabbath. How many times did we have a game scheduled at 8:00 a.m. on a Sunday? Because we made a commitment to the teams, I encouraged Marshall to play, but he understood (and I explained it to him all over again each Sunday that it came up)Continue reading “THE SABBATH AND THE QUARANTINE. 2 Chronicles 36:21.”

FIRE INSURANCE. Matthew 7:24.

In 1942, Winston Churchill made interesting remarks when the British had General Rommel’s Nazi army on the run in Egypt. “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” We think the war is over when a sinner gets saved.Continue reading “FIRE INSURANCE. Matthew 7:24.”

THE FINISH LINE. 2 Timothy 4:7.

Beginnings are exciting. Even kids who hate school can sense the excitement of back-to-school time. We used to enjoy meeting our new teachers and seeing who would be in our class. The beginning of things can be fun. When the gun fires and you take off in a race! Or when you show up forContinue reading “THE FINISH LINE. 2 Timothy 4:7.”

Middle Management. Jeremiah 38:20.

When a teacher wants to become a principal, she seeks a masters degree in middle management. The degree may be officially named “Educational Administration,” or something similar, but the nickname among teachers is “mid-management degree.” The challenge of working in middle management is that you are trapped in the middle. You are not a topContinue reading “Middle Management. Jeremiah 38:20.”