Wayne Stiles's Blog, page 24
May 29, 2019
Let’s Begin with Good News [Podcast]
The "Live the Bible" Podcast Launches today!
I’m excited today to launch my new podcast, “Live the Bible.” Whether you’re dealing with personal discouragement, needing relief from guilt, or looking for encouragement and hope for eternity, you’ll hear words to help you truly live the Bible.
The podcast launches its first episode with good news, and we find it in the first verses of Mark’s gospel on the life of Jesus Christ.
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss an episode.
Let’s Begin with Good News
The "Live the Bible" Podcast Launches today!
I’m excited today to launch my new podcast, “Live the Bible.” Whether you’re dealing with personal discouragement, needing relief from guilt, or looking for encouragement and hope for eternity, you’ll hear words to help you truly live the Bible.
The podcast launches its first episode with good news, and we find it in the first verses of Mark’s gospel on the life of Jesus Christ.
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss an episode.
Thi...
May 27, 2019
How God Helps You in Impossible Situations
The only way to experience the joy of God's power
God often puts us in impossible situations. We find it frustrating, sure—but it’s never meant to be. In fact, those circumstances are meant to do just the opposite. God means to encourage us.
(Photo: Plain of Bethsaida. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
With the Sea of Galilee in view on the Plain of Bethsaida, Jesus pointed to thousands of people and said to His twelve disciples: “You give them something to eat!” (Mark 6:37).
...May 13, 2019
2 Big Questions to Help You Live Intentionally for God
Jesus' example at Capernaum is a model for strategy.
It’s always easier to react to life rather than to shape it. To go with the flow rather than to dig a new trench. But God gives us help to choose the direction of our lives.
(Photo: Capernaum synagogue, where Jesus taught. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
The Lord helps us live intentionally for Him. God has given us the freedom to make significant choices in spite of our circumstances.
Jesus’ example at Capernaum shows us...
May 7, 2019
When You’re Waiting on God in a Weary Land
How your place of confusion can become a place of refuge.
Sometimes waiting on God feels like you’re dying of thirst. That’s what David thought as he wandered in the Judean wilderness, running from a problem he couldn’t solve.
(Photo: The Wilderness of Judea. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
Chased by the jealous King Saul, David took refuge in the Wilderness of Judea and prayed, “My flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).
This bar...
April 29, 2019
The Valley of the Kings – God’s Amazing Sovereignty Displayed in a Pharaoh’s Life
How Amenhotep II illustrates the tension between God’s sovereignty and our choices.
The Pharaohs buried in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt, are more than history. The New Testament uses these kings to illustrate truths to strengthen our walk with Jesus Christ.
(Photo: The Valley of the Kings. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
When we picture Egypt, we picture pyramids —those iconic burial places of the pharaohs. But pyramids posed a problem. Pyramids left no doubt wher...
April 22, 2019
Bethel Reveals What You Need to Know to Connect with God
There has always been only one way.
There has always been only one way to God—even in the Old Testament. But how? That way is by grace through faith in the object of God’s choosing. Bethel gives us a peek at that way.
(Photo: Modern Beitin, ancient Bethel. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
In his flight from his murderous brother Esau, Jacob spent the night at Bethel, where years earlier his grandfather Abraham had heard God promise that he would receive all the land as far as...
April 15, 2019
The Dominus Flevit Church—and a Triumphal Entry that Wasn’t
As I made my way down the Mount of Olives, I couldn’t help think about the day Jesus rode down the slope on the back of a donkey.
His words that day hardly seemed fitting for a “Triumphal Entry.”
(Photo: Jerusalem from inside the Dominus Flevit Church, courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
When Jesus saw Jerusalem, He wept over it:
If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. —Luke 19:42
I pondered the words...
April 8, 2019
Why Our Dirty Hands is the Best Bad News You’ll Ever Hear
How God's Word makes the hands unclean and the heart free
Many people see the Bible only as a book of bad news. After all, it lists everything we do wrong and reminds us how much God hates sin. But bad news is only half the message.
(Photo: Unsplash)
Because nobody likes hearing bad news, we often slam the book shut before we hear the good news that always follows. In fact, without bad news, we have no good news.
The bad news comes only as the essential first step to the best news you’ll ever...
April 1, 2019
What Did it Mean to Be Unclean?
How an Old Testament Ritual Offers Hope to Today’s Problem
Thumbing through our Old Testament, we often come across references to people or objects being “unclean.” What in the world does that mean?
(Photo by Photodune)
From our perspective, when we come across something unclean we toss it in the dishwasher, clothes washer, or garbage can. And if a person is unclean, they simply step in the tub and scrub away the grime.
Problem solved.
We hear “unclean” and we think of something as contaminat...
