Ecclesiastes 12:10

    It was a time of crisis for the church. Peter had been arrested and jailed. Coming off the heels of James's arrest and execution, the situation looked dire. So, the church turned to the prayer So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.   Acts 12:5    And God answered their prayer. Peter walks out of prison with the guards none the wiser. He then goes to the house the church was meeting in and knocks at the door.  But the church wasn’t ready for that… And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. When he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer. When she recognized Peter's voice, because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. They said to her, "You are out of your mind!" But s...

  Some people are hard to sort into any box. Hero? Villian? Victim? Vile? Maybe one of the hardest in the Bible is Queen Vashti.   We read about her in the book of Esther. She is the queen that Esther replaces. So, what did she do so terrible as to get replaced?   In the first chapter of Esther, we read that the King is having a party. It was a lavish affair, there was plenty of wine and everybody was free to indulge all they wanted (1:8) Queen Vashti was having her own feast alongside. As the party goes on for seven days, the King orders Vashti to come and show herself off to the guests. She was apparently quite the looker. But she refuses.   And there is the rub.   Was Vashti standing up for herself by refusing to be ogled by a bunch of drunk officials? Was she a rebellious wife refusing to submit to her husband and king? Was she a bastion of modesty? Was she a spoiled brat who put her own party over the needs of her people?   I’m not sure we know. The ki...

  As kings go, you couldn’t do much better than Asa. In 2nd Chronicles 14 we are told that Asa “ did good and right in the sight of the LORD his God ”, he removed the idols destroyed the places of false worship, and “ commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers and to observe the law and the commandment ”. Even when trouble came, he still held completely to God (2nd Chronicles 14:9-12).   What was the secret to his success? We see the advice he heeds in 2nd Chronicles 15:1-2: Now the Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the LORD is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.   For years the nations of Israel had been lacking God in their lives. It was only when things got bad did they seek to return. The prophet was telling Asa to not make that mistake. Seek God now before the strugg...

    Probably the most famous ace pilot was Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen or as he was called “The Red Baron. He racked up 81 air kills in combat during the First World War. What made him so deadly was his discipline. He had a set of rules that kept him from danger, rules he adhered to with precision. Number One : Never follow an enemy for too long, there was too much of a chance one of his buddies would come to the rescue and get you.   Number Two : Never fly too far into enemy territory, then enemies' ground fire might pick you off.  Number Three : Never fly too low to the ground, not only would it put you in range of enemy guns, but it also risks a crash if the plane is damaged.   He kept those rules until April 21st, 1918 when we got into a dogfight with a young and inexperienced Brit named Wilfrid May. May’s guns had jammed and as he fled the Baron saw an easy target.   Maybe because it seemed such an easy target Richthofen broke his rul...