Wayne Stiles's Blog, page 60
July 8, 2016
How to Respond When God Demands from You Something Impossible
The surprising benefits of understanding your limitations.
We tend to expect God to act in ways we can understand. We work, and so God provides money. We pray, and so God answers prayer. We do this, and so God does that. In other words, we see God as the effect and ourselves as the cause.
(Photo courtesy of Unsplash)
Life is all about God responding, it seems, and if we do nothing, neither will God.
This isn’t true, obviously. But it’s how we feel.
So, what if we’re in a situation where we ca...
July 6, 2016
Lachish—Blending the Bible, History, & Archaeology
How biblical history weaves a unified story, supporting what the Bible says.
Screams of war had had occurred where I stood. Hebrew and Assyrian arrows spraying at each other. Sling stones crushing armor and skulls. Assyrian battering rams methodically picking apart the city’s outer wall. Finally, Lachish fell.
(Photo: Relief from Sennacherib’s Victory Over Lachish, in British Museum)
Of all ancient tells in the Holy Land, the Israel Antiquities Authority owns only one—Tel Lachish. It remained...
July 4, 2016
What Freedom Means and Absolutely Never Means
All those self-evident truths come in a broader context.
On a layover to Israel, we stopped in Philadelphia. We visited the Rocky steps (yes, I ran them), Betsy Ross’ house, and Ben Franklin’s grave. But I most enjoyed Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.
(Photo by Trent Yarnell)
There’s nothing like standing where history happened. It reminds us that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were more than just names in a history book or faces on our money. They really lived.
On July 4, 1776...
July 1, 2016
What to Do When People Absolutely Disappoint You
It’s time to graduate from our expectations to Reality 101
After a lifetime of people disappointing us, it’s tough not to develop a thick membrane of cynicism around our hearts. I’m convinced, however, we simply need stiff jolt of reality.
(Photo courtesy of Unsplash)
We need to come to the place where we realize everybody in our lives will fail us to some degree. Everybody.
Our parents will fail us. Our children will fail us. Our spouse, our boss, our friends, and even our pastor—all will f...June 29, 2016
Valley of Achor: How to Change Your Trouble to Triumph
Why You Should Never Give up if You're in a Hopeless Place
Some places hoard bad memories. Maybe it was your hometown or even your home. The events associated with that place have forever tainted its memories. The Valley of Achor was such a site.
(Photo: The Wadi Qilt, perhaps the Valley of Achor. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
After Joshua’s victory at Jericho, the Israelites suffered defeat at Ai because a man named Achan had buried banned spoils of war under his tent (Jo...
June 27, 2016
Crazy Results You’ll Want to See from My 2016 Survey
Here are the changes I plan to make after the survey.
For the past four years I have surveyed my blog readers in order to find out about your needs, preferences, and interests. This year I learned some surprising results.
My goal in writing this blog is to help you connect the Bible and its lands to your life. Each survey helps me do that better than before.
The survey offered some fascinating finds—some affirming and predictable. But some were a total surprise.
I’d like to share the results...
June 24, 2016
Why Some Fundamentals Never Change with God
Yet some rules no longer apply (and why)
Remember the day you left home? For some of us, that day was when we took off for college. For others, it was to take a job. We all had reasons, and we were gone.
(Photo courtesy of Unsplash)
When you left home, some things immediately changed. No longer did you have to be home at a certain time each night. If you wanted pizza ten times a week, you had it. Freedoms increased.
But there were also some things that didn’t change.
The speed limit was stil...June 22, 2016
Chasing the Surprising Geography of the Presence of God
How can God be somewhere and everywhere at the same time?
It’s hard to imagine an omnipresent God dwelling in one place. And yet, every December we celebrate the fact. God dwells in the confines of a human body. And He is also everywhere.
But the incarnation isn’t the first time God has localized His presence among His people.
(Photo: Olive groves near Bethlehem. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
God is both omnipresent and present. King Solomon summed up the seeming contradic...
June 20, 2016
There’s Still Room for You on My Holy Land Tour This Fall
But time is running out. Sign up before July 15!
If you’ve been putting off taking a tour to Israel, I’d like to give you another invitation to join my tour to the Holy Land this fall. The tour already has a great group! But there’s room for you.
(Explaining the Second Coming of Jesus on On the Mount of Olives)
We still have space on our tour, but I urge you to reserve your place today. Why? Because this is no ordinary tour to Israel.
This will be an exclusive, one-bus tour devoted entirely t...
June 17, 2016
Mount Tabor–A Panorama of Beauty and Praise
Only one thing could make it more beautiful.
Unmistakable. Majestic. Distinctive. Graceful. Descriptions all appropriate for an isolated hill wedged in the northeast corner of the Jezreel Valley—Mount Tabor.
(Photo: Mount Tabor. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
Rising from the valley floor 1,843 feet, Mount Tabor’s smooth contours honor it with a distinguishing outline recognizable from any vantage point.
From the Plain of Bethsaida north of the Sea of Galilee, I have seen t...
