By Joe McKeever “Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you” (Psalm 116:7). Want to see anxiety demonstrated?  Get on any highway in the country during morning rush hour traffic.  One out of every ten drivers is either running late, in a hurry, under the gun from the boss or the school kids, and taking it out on every other motorist on the road.  They’re not wicked, just stressed. They’re anxious. A friend wrote to thank me for an article on depression.  “I’m not really depressed,” he said, “but anxious.  I have a lot of problem with anxiety.” I could write a book on that subject myself.  (A friend, Dr. Larry Kennedy–now in Heaven and a member of the great cloud of witnesses–did just that.  I told him he might have thought of a more uplifting title than Down With Anxiety, but he felt the play on words worked.) I’ve been anxious.  It seems to go with the job of pastor. Ask any pastor how well he sleeps on Saturday night. Let’s not add to the misery of those battling anxiety by calling them unbelievers.  Anxiety may well be the norm for those who live in uncertain times.  And yet there is a Scriptural answer for it. Perhaps we should think of anxiety not so much as … [Read more...]

By Anne Graham Lotz In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith…of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire…may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  1 Peter 1:6-7 What fuel has the Refiner added to the fire as He works to reveal Jesus in and through you? He has recently stoked the fire under me! I’m encouraged when I remember that when a refiner purifies gold, he melts it in a pot over the fire. He keeps turning up the heat until the dross, or impurities, rise to the surface. He then bends over the gold to skim off the dross, and continues doing so, until he can see his face reflected in the surface of the gold. Gold being refined in the fire is a meaningful visual of the way God refines and purifies you and me.[1] He knows exactly how hot the fire needs to be in order to bring the impurities in our hearts, minds, and lives to the surface of our attention, enabling Him to skim them off, until He can see His own image reflected in us. The Refiner has just added fuel to the fire in my life. On the afternoon of August 17, 2015, between … [Read more...]