“How Came I Hither?”

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  “I observed in the herbage a number of weather-worn stones, evidently shaped with tools. They were broken, covered with moss and half sunken in the earth. Some lay prostrate, some leaned at various angles, none was vertical. They were obviously headstones of graves, though the graves themselves no longer existed as either mounds or depressions; the years had leveled all. Scattered here and there, more massive blocks showed where some pompous tomb or ambitious monument had once flung its feeble defiance at oblivion. So old seemed these relics, these vestiges of vanity and memorials of affection and piety, so battered and worn and stained—so neglected, deserted, forgotten the place, that I could not help thinking myself the discoverer of the burial-ground of a prehistoric race of men whose very name was long extinct. Filled with these reflections, I was for some time heedless of the sequence of my own experiences, but soon I thought, “How came I hither?”” An Inhabitant of Carcosa B...

The Cost of Indecision

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On Genesis 19:
Not Close Enough

"When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, "Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city." . . . But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." - Genesis 19:15, 26
We can see in the case of Lot's wife that one can be exposed to spiritual things and not necessarily become a believer. As flawed as Lot's witness was, the Bible does say he was righteous (2 Peter 2:7). That means Lot's wife was exposed to the truth of God. But she did not believe."

Read the rest of Greg Laurie's comments here.

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Remember Lot's Wife

"But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt". - Genesis 19:26

Who was this woman? We don't really know a lot about her. We assume that she met Lot in Sodom. We can safely conclude that Lot's wife was not a believer. It's clear she did not want to leave Sodom. She wanted to steal one last glance, and it cost her everything.

Read the rest of Greg Laurie's comments here.

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Former President Ronald Reagan says he learned the need for decision-making early in life. An aunt had taken him to a cobbler to have a pair of shoes made for him. The shoemaker asked young Ronald Reagan, "Do you want a square toe or a round toe?"

Reagan hemmed and hawed. So the cobbler said, "Come back in a day or two and let me know what you want."

A few days later the shoemaker saw Reagan on the street and asked what he had decided about the shoes. "I still haven't made up my mind," the boy answered. "Very well," said the cobbler.
When Reagan received the shoes, he was shocked to see that one shoe had a square toe and the other a round toe.

"Looking at those shoes every day taught me a lesson," said Reagan years later. "If you don't make your own decisions, somebody else will make them for you!"

The sovereign God has made us people, not puppets. We have His Word to guide us, His love to redeem us, and His assurance that we are capable of making choices.

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On Genesis 21:

Do you realize that if Ishmael was born when Abraham was 86 (Gen. 16:16) and Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born (Gen. 21:5), that the second time Hagar is kicked out of the house (once by Sarah, the second time by Abraham at Sarah's request in 21:10ff), Ishmael was 14 years old?!? Why do those Sunday School pictures show her with a little baby or small child?