Wayne Stiles's Blog, page 55
October 14, 2016
Israel’s Negev Gives Enormous Hope for Your Barren Life
Nothing can stop God from fulfilling His promises.
Nothing can stop God from fulfilling His promises to those who believe in Him. In the mean time, it takes great vision to see something where there is nothing. Israel’s Negev provides a great example.
(Photo: Sculpture garden at Sde Boker, by שי קסל CC-BY-2.5, via Wikimedia Commons)
Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, saw the vast expanse of Israel’s Negev as something that offered great potential. In 1953, he settled in the kibb...
October 12, 2016
How Antioch Can Energize Your Right Motivation for God
Where you are and who you are make all the difference.
Some cities have a geographical location that seems especially designed by God as a springboard for communication. Antioch on the Orontes, for example, bears the thumbprint of God.
(Photo: The modern city of Antakya covers much of ancient Antioch. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
Scripture’s first mention of Syrian Antioch refers to the city on the Orontes River, 300 miles north of Jerusalem. Antioch served as the Roman c...
October 10, 2016
Get the Perspective You Need with 3 Truths
How to watch for the journey as well as the destination.
The Texas Driver’s Handbook has a tip that can help you today. A diagram shows when you sit in a parked car, you have a 180-degree field of vision. Great perspective. But then you start moving.
(Photo courtesy of Unsplash)
Once you get going, your perspective immediately changes:
When your car accelerates to 20 M.P.H. that field of vision reduces to 66%. At 40M.P.H. your visual field shrinks to 20%. At 60 M.P.H. your field of vision re...October 7, 2016
Finding the Dead Sea Scrolls Isn’t Enough
The Qumran caves only take us so far.
Our guide pointed from the road to a rocky outcropping on one of the distant hills. “This hike is definitely optional,” he warned. “But it’s worth it.”
(Photo: The interior of Cave 4 at Qumran. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
A few of us brave souls followed, and for the first time in my life, I wished I had four legs.
Our guide scurried over the rocks like a lizard and stopped ahead, halfway up the hill, near the fissure in the rocks to...
October 5, 2016
2 Questions to Help You Live Intentionally for God
There's no need to keep going with the flow.
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. Obviously, we want to respond well to what life throws at us. It’s assumed we should do that.
(Photo courtesy of Unsplash)
But I believe God gives us help to choose the direction of our lives. To live intentionally for Him. I don’t mean we choose what happens to us, but rather, that God has given us the freedom to make significant choic...
October 3, 2016
Connecting the Rapture, Rosh Hashanah, and the Place of Trumpeting
A reminder of where our true hope lies.
Whenever I visit the Jerusalem Archaeological Park, I’m eager to walk to the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. I’ve never been to this corner on Rosh Hashanah or during the Feast of Trumpets, but I’d love to go there then. Archaeologists have uncovered a large portion of the first-century street that stretched north along the original Western Wall.
(Photo: The southwest corner of the Temple Mount at left. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible L...
September 30, 2016
What book are you reading right now, or what’s one you’ve recently enjoyed? (I’ve listed what I’m reading as well!) [Question]
What book are you reading right now, or what’s one you’ve recently enjoyed? (I’ve listed what I’m reading as well!) Answer this question on my blog and join the discussion
September 28, 2016
Eilat—Israel on the Red Sea
More lies beneath the surface if we will simply explore.
When we think of the Red Sea, we tend to picture Moses holding up his arms and dividing the waters. This body of water parted like curtains in the opening act of Israel’s history. The parting of the sea set the stage for one of history’s most incredible escapes (Exodus 14:29-31).
(Photo: Eilat—Israel on the Red Sea. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
But this part of the Red Sea represents only half of its northernmost ed...
September 27, 2016
In Defense of Human Dignity [Link]
In Defense of Human Dignity 
by Michele CushattSeptember 21, 2016
When I first read this moving post by my friend, Michele Cushatt, I sat back and thought how the most important parts of life often get expressed in our most vulnerable moments.
You’ll find this worth your time for encouragement.Keep reading this post. Better still, get my full posts the easy way when you SUBSCRIBE TO MY BLOG. When you do, I’ll also send you my FREE e-book! 
September 26, 2016
Why God Will Lead You Unwanted Places
Discovering the joy of surrendering to God
God will lead you places you would never choose. Unwanted places. Because the Lord is much greater than you and I can imagine, it makes sense that He wants for us more than we ever dreamed.
(Photo courtesy of Unsplash)
God wants you to trust Him, and you’d like to do so. He wants you to glorify Him, to know Him, and so do you. But really,you often want to trust God only whenyou understand Him. Too often, that desire to know the Lord slices His list o...
