Wayne Stiles's Blog, page 41

Why the High Price of Humility is Worth What You Pay

Horeshat Tal reminds us of unity's essential ingredient.

Living together in harmony make life great. But dealing with disharmony is like draining the marrow from your bones. King David knew both extremes. He offers wisdom from the voice of experience.

(Photo: Horeshat Tal National Park. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

Many places in Israel today adapt their modern names from biblical names or references. Horeshat Tal National Park takes its name from David’s words in Psalm 1...

God’s Amazing Goals for Your Life Begin Here

The small things we do matter to God.

Sometimes the dreams and goals you have for life are good goals—even godly goals—but just not God’s goals. Your expectations of life are just that—yours. God has His own set of plans, and He isn’t telling.

(Photo by Photodune)

God may lead you initially one direction simply to take you another.

He may give you a vision as a single, or for a family, or for a ministry only so that He can sanctify you by his grace in experiencing a slammed door. Slammed doo...

How to Discover the Secret to a Lasting Satisfaction

How do we deal with the futility of life when the satisfaction always fades?

Have you ever noticed how we dedicate so much time and money to feed feelings that last only a moment? Think about your upcoming weekend for a moment and see if it isn’t true.

(Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com)

We pay five dollars for a cup of coffee we drink in five minutes. We long for that glorious vacation but come home in a week to face the same daily grind. We plunk down twenty bucks for a movie (and even more f...

A Map Shows What Happens When Bias Takes the Throne

Solomon’s administrative districts reveal a weakness we must avoid.

Have you ever known someone who fails to take their own advice? Somehow what they see so clearly in the lives of others becomes a personal blind spot that undermines their success.

(Photo: Jerusalem looking north to Solomon’s 12 districts. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

When we look at Solomon, we see a man who literally wrote the book on wisdom. However, his divided heart ultimately divided his nation. But...

3 Questions to Ask Yourself in Making the Right Decision

We need to remember that our spiritual life IS our life.

How many times have we made what we thought was the best decision—but it turned out to be the worst? Lessons learned from such blunders we remember and regret all of our lives.

(Photo courtesy of Unsplash)

We make knee-jerk decisions that we think will benefit us financially, or relationally, or vocationally, or physically.

But what about spiritually? Lot failed to ask that question, and he lived with the regret.

But we don’t have to be...

How the Gezer Boundary Stones Speak to Your Spiritual Life

Those stones are there for a reason you can trust—even if you don’t understand.

Think about the land you live on. The dirt beneath your house has been there for thousands of years. The hills that surround your neighborhood haven’t moved since God put them there at creation.

(Photo: Gezer boundary inscription number 8. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

We protect and defend our property, don’t we? It’s a big deal. We post signs to warn trespassers. We build fences. We install s...

Eilat Reminds You of the One Question You Must Always Ask

A Word of Warning When Your Ship Comes In

Sometimes a decision looks so good it can’t be bad. Or what we stand to gain overshadows any thought of what we might lose. But at the southern end of Israel sits a seaport with an ancient example that applies to your choices this afternoon.

(Photo: Boats at modern Eilat. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

The biblical city of Ezion-geber, near modern Eilat, served as Israel’s occasional port on the Red Sea. On one occasion, the gulf of...

How to Get Your Roots to Reach Deep

The silent, unseen essentials of what makes life really matter.

After my grandfather died years ago, I planted an oak tree in his memory in our front yard. The skinny stem stood only 6 feet tall (like Granddad did). I planted it on a windy day.

(By Almonroth. Own work. CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

A few hours later, my neighbor hollered: “Hey, Wayne, your tree was really leaning over in the wind!” I grabbed the trunk and slightly bent the tree over. The whole base moved, because it h...

The Gospels — Photo Companion to the Bible [Video]

If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. For years I have enjoyed using the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands for personal study, as well as for most photos of Bible lands on my blog. Only recently have I seen a collection that takes the magnificent photos from this collection to the next level. 

The same producers have just released the Photo Companion to the Bible, with the Gospels as their first collection. After looking through it at key place...

The Secret to Walking the Path of Wisdom

The practical book of Proverbs makes it clear.

The first steps we take in a decision often make sense. But the connection between those steps and their final outcome often seems unrelated. Walking the path of wisdom has a domino effect far greater than we can imagine.

(Photo courtesy of Unsplash)

For us, a disciplined intake of Scripture certainly promises wisdom. But wisdom offers a course of action, not just a course of instruction.

The book of Proverbs reveals the outcome of the pathways w...