Colin S. Smith

The person who learns to number his or her days gains a heart of wisdom (Ps. 90:12).

Explaining temptation by saying __od is testing me_ or __atan is attacking me_ positions __e_ either as the victim, if I am defeated, or the hero, if I prevail. But confessing that __y heart is desperately wicked_ provides no such comforts. It heads off all attempts to shift blame, and cuts down all the pretensions of spiritual pride.

Human life is created in God's image, and that makes it sacred.

Sin is a power; wherever it is given room, it will grow in strength, and it will take you where you do not want to go.

The Bible is different because it is the Word of God, by which He speaks to me. Disagreeing with the Bible would be disagreeing with God. So when I read the Bible I want to place myself __nder_ it. I want to receive the Scripture in such a way that over time, my thinking, feeling, choosing, believing and behaving will be molded by the Word God is speaking into my life. I don__ want to critique the Scriptures; I want them to critique me and change me.

He is the Creator and the sustainer of all things. He is the unchanging, self-existent God, and that means that He depends on nobody. He is neither helped by our faith nor hindered by our unbelief.

In serving as a pastor for over thirty years, I have seen some remarkable transformations and I__e seen some big disappointments. I have two observations. First, where there has been lasting change, the common factor, in every case, is that the Word of God has had a significant entrance into the person__ life. Second, where godly change has failed to get started, or has slowly unraveled, the common factor, in every case, is that change has been attempted without significant engagement in the Scriptures.

If you feel that without a certain person, or position, or achievement, your life would be not worth living, you may be deeper into idolatry than you think.

God__ Word is the living seed that brings new birth. It is the milk that nurtures the new life of a young Christian and the meat that builds the muscle of a mature believer.

Jonah__ anger was not marked by outbursts of rage but by a quiet withdrawal from the company of others and a growing preoccupation with the events in his own life.