Clearing Spiritual Vitality Roadblocks Faith stagnation and doldrums . . . we all have them. But we hate to admit it. Sometimes we coast a bit before we realize we’ve hit a rather major roadblock to our spiritual vitality. The Lord said to Joshua (7:13 NASB), “You cannot stand before your enemies until you have […]
SIGNS OF A SPIRITUAL HOME What makes a spiritual home? What do you think? Try this True or False Quiz. A spiritual home is one in which … ? At least three pictures of Jesus hang on the wall. A pulpit is displayed in the living room. A large, black King James Bible lies open […]
The No-See-Ums Plagues In most books about the Old West, you seldom read about the bugs. Oh, there are great stories about bears, snakes, and mountain lions. But what about when the cowboys, prospectors, mountain men, and pioneers had to face the dreaded enemies of mosquitos, fleas, lice, gnats, and no-see-ums? Each of these little […]
Turning Spiritual Wimps Into Warriors I’m attracted back to the biblical book of Joshua time and time again. And there’s no more exciting scene for wimps who want to be warriors than the battle in Joshua 10. Joshua hadn’t planned to fight this battle. However, he feels obligated to defend the Gibeonites, even though they […]
READY FOR BATTLE by Western Author Stephen Bly One of the unexpected pleasures of writing western novels includes the nice letters from men and women, boys and girls who enjoy a good story from the shoot ’em up, ready for battle Old West. From time to time, they write to ask questions or give advice […]
What to Remember About the Lost You and I are supposed to be like our Father in Heaven. However, how can we be like Him? We want the same family characteristics. People should look at us and call us “Christians,” that is, “little Christs,” because we’re running around trying to be like our Father. That’s […]
Water Barrel Cowards Some of the most colorful phrases coming from the Old West were localized in geography and era. They’re totally meaningless today. One of my favorite taunts, “I’ll shoot through the barrel and drown you.” This strange sounding epigram called someone a water barrel coward. Used in the right crowd, it guaranteed a […]
Legendary Firearms of the Old West I suppose the history of the Old West could be told just by describing the firearms carried. Take the Hawken rifle, for instance, among many legendary guns, indeed. Winchester ’73s ruled the range during its era. The Colt Peacemaker stalked the towns. And the Sharp’s big 50 brought down […]
Tips For Standing in the Gap For Others The gap exists everywhere. We’re surrounded by imperfection. Places, projects and people don’t always live up to our expectations. They’ve got holes, like the wall construction project in Nehemiah’s time (see Nehemiah 4:6ff). Basic Gap Principles — A gap is the difference between what something or someone […]
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