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.
“And it came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.” Genesis 15:17 In the book of Genesis, we find a moment when the Lord makes a most remarkable statement to Abraham. He says, “I am the Lord…
“Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” Psalm 2:8 Why does God command us to pray, and why does He command us to believe Him for which He alone is capable and willing to accomplish? The answer lies in…
“But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our piece was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5 In the book of Acts of the Apostles, we find a passage which tells the story of a Eunuch of Ethiopia, “…a man of great…
“Create in me a clean heart O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 It was Charles Wesley, in one of his great hymns, who wrote: “Let nothing now my heart divide, Since with Thee I am crucified, And live to God in Thee. Dead to the world and all its toys,…
“Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia.” 2 Chronicles 36:22 What does it mean when Scripture speaks of God stirring up someone, or some people? Certainly,…
“But Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground, as though He heard them not.” John 8:6 When David wrote in the Psalm 23 about “green pastures and still waters,” what was he referring to? Or rather what was the Spirit of God seeking to reveal to those who would believe? The…
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear not evil; for Thou art with me: Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4 In one of Paul Gerhardt’s hymns, he writes: “Midst the darkness, storm, and sorrow, One bright gleam I see; Well I know the…
“And unto the one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.” Matthew 25:15 In the context of the Christ’s teaching of the last days, He addresses also the issue of the characteristics of the kingdom of God. These…
“I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him. I called him but he gave me no answer.” Song of Solomon 5:6 Sometimes in a believer’s life, it takes time to understand what the great…
“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.” Daniel 3:17 In the book of Habakkkuk, we have the account of a prophet who is ovewhelmed by the coming invasion of the Chaldeans, an…