If you place a copy of Prison to Praise in the hands of a hurting person, will they accept Jesus as their Savior? Perhaps, but not necessarily. If you give a copy to five hundred people, how many will be born again? No one knows. Too often Christians become discouraged when the good they do does not seem to produce …
By Mary Carothers God sure went to a lot of trouble to convince the Israelites to revere Him as holy. For example, when they were in the desert, He instructed Moses in great detail about how to build the tabernacle. He wanted the people to understand the difference between what was holy and what was common. At the very onset, …
It may seem difficult to believe that God is working for our good when we do not see evidence that He is doing so. We may be like doubting Thomas who wouldn’t believe that Jesus was alive until he could see and touch Him: Jesus said, Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not …
By Mary Carothers How many times we are tempted to try to build a ladder to Heaven rather than rely on the cross of Jesus! In our pride, we often try to earn our way to Heaven by the things we do. Have you ever been tempted to think that doing any of the following would take you one rung …
What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of ironclad things we cannot yet see (Hebrews 11:1 NLT). If we believe we have it, we have it. But trust that ebbs and flows back and forth according to circumstances, is not faith – it is hope. When …
By Mary Carothers Have you ever wished that God would use you in a big, “important” ministry? Do you wish you could be in the “front lines” doing battle with the enemy? Do you feel less important to God because about all you can do is to pray for those who have the obvious, and therefore seemingly more important, places …
All things work together (not separately) for good, to those who love God. We may become hopelessly confused if we attempt to understand exactly how each event will work for our good. Things that happen to us work “together” with other events, to work some good purpose. During the reign of Queen Mary of England, a man was sentenced to …
By Mary Carothers How important is obedience? In the case of our dog Thor, I would say it is pretty important. Where we live, there is a law requiring dogs to be confined in their yards or on a leash (under control). The dogs we see being walked are always on a leash because their owners have no control over …
There have been days when I wasted hours of my life and didn’t think very much about it – time I could have learned important things as I served my Savior. Our human flesh is strongly and powerfully tempted to waste not only hours but an entire lifetime. How often we hear someone say, “It’s something to do to pass …
By Mary Carothers In Revelation 22:13 Jesus said He was the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning, and the End. I have always understood that to mean that He was with God before the world was made, as first John clearly tells us: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. …
