Rick Nier...Woo!

We often criticize the Israelites for being unfaithful while wandering in the desert, always with sinful attitudes, even while daily receiving miraculous food from Heaven. How could they be so blind? How could they be so stupid? Didn’t they realize they were receiving daily blessings from God? Didn’t they understand that, every single day, God was proving to them that He thought of them, remembered them, and was providing for them? Every. Single. Day. Of course, we could never be so blind. That is, unless we put ourselves in their shoes. Then we might not be so quick to judge. We are told they needed to go out and get the amount of food they needed for that day.  Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there...

Since leaving the youth ministry position I had held for 15 years, jumping into a still unknown future, I have been purposeful about some of the books I have picked up. I realized that this season, where I would get to choose what to read and focus on, might not come again for some time. In the words of a pastor, it might be the sabbatical no church was going to give me. So I chose a book on purpose. I chose a book on listening for God’s voice. And my latest read is about measuring success by making choices differently than the average person might. The Last Arrow by Erwin McManus is that and more. The subtitle, Save Nothing For The Next Life , gives you a peek into the direction McManus would take his reader. Using the short story of Elisha and King Jehoash in 2 Kings 13. If you’re not familiar, Jehoash is king of Israel and he is in trouble. Going to Elisha for help, the unique prophet asks the king to strike the ground with a quiver if arrows. The kings does so, strikin...