There's an old legend that two angels were sent from heaven to earth on special errands. One angel was to pick up all the petitions from earth and bring them to heaven. The other was to pick up all the thanksgivings. The petitions were so many and so heavy that the first angel had to make three trips back and forth between heaven and earth. The second angel had to scour the earth in order to find even a mere handful of thanksgivings.

Let me state something important. There is never a time during which Jesus is not speaking. Never. There is never a place in which Jesus is not present. Never.

The heart of our problem in our nation today - in our lives, families, churches, and communities - can be captured and summarized in these verses found in 2 Chronicles 15, a portion of God's Word talking about ancient Israel:

Before you read any further, reflect on those last four words, "I am among you."  Do you believe God is near?  He wants you to.  He wants you to know He is in the midst of your world.  Where you are as you read these words, he is present.  In your car.  On the plane.  In your office, your bedroom, your den.  He's near.

A person does not fall into carnality overnight. He does not lapse into carnality because he or she did one thing wrong. There is a pattern that takes time to establish. The carnal Christian is characterized by the neglect of spiritual matters.

A score of years ago, a friend placed in my hand a book called True Peace. It was an old medieval message, and it had but one thought--that God was waiting in the depths of my being to talk to me if I would only get still enough to hear His voice.

During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the British government began to run low on silver for coins. Lord Cromwell sent his men on an investigation of the local cathedral to see if they could find any precious metal there.