My wife and I served as evangelical, protestant missionaries in France for eleven and a half years, after which I became the pastor and director of a Christian school in a French-speaking evangelical church, L'Eglise Evangelique de Saint Jerome, in Quebec, Canada. After serving in Quebec for five years, we then moved to Greenville, South Carolina, where I became the pastor of the First Evangelical Church of Greenville. In 1995, we moved to Tallahassee, Florida, where I eventually assumed the management of the family business, and remained there until 2012, when our family moved to Meridian, Idaho. My wife and I have six children. These short devotionals are born out of the loss of one of these children in particular, with the hope and prayer that they will serve to encourage and inspire those who read them in their walk with Christ. God bless you all, and may we finish well the race set before us.
“The Lord has done great things for us; whereof we are glad.” Psalm 126:3 Dear Ones: What determines whether something is “great?” We often think of that which is of great magnitude, size, and power. This is true…sometimes. At other times, we see greatness couched in humility, lowliness, almost unseen. That which is “great” in…
“And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six men…therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water.” Joshua 7:5 Dear Ones: There is nothing quite like going forth in faith, believing in the victory of Christ to be seen and known, only to suffer defeat. The first question in such a situation…
“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved.” 1 Timothy 2:4 Dear Ones: How determined is God to save mankind? By “save” we mean that God is willing and working so that all of a person’s sins are forgiven and washed away,…
“This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” Luke 22:20 Dear Ones: When God declares that He is making a covenant with man, and then declares what that covenant is, the first thing we must grasp is that the covenant is singularly, “God-made.” You never discover in Scripture where…
“Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in.” Psalm 24:7 Dear Ones: In the book of the Revelation, in Christ’s letter to the church at Laodicea, He says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice…
“Yes, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” Psalm 78:41 Dear Ones: Many years ago, my Dad told me: “Do not put God in a box.” What did he mean by this? Perhaps the first thing we need to ask is, “What does it mean to put God in…
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 Dear Ones: Amy Carmichael was an English missionary to India many years ago. She never returned to England once she left for India, serving the Lord there for many years. Part of the ministry…
“And Abraham said, ‘My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering:’ so they went both of them together.” (Genesis 22:8) Dear Ones: Nothing speaks to us like a good story. Such is the case when we consider Abraham, a man of over a hundred years old, who is commanded by God…
“And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away.” 2 Kings 4:27 Dear Ones: The story of the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4 is quite an illustration of “laying hold of” that which is of God. Elisha…
“…in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance…” 2 Timothy 2:25 Dear Ones: About seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah was led to write about, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert a…