Is there someone who has wounded you deeply that you would like to forgive?  In what ways have you struggled with old memories and feelings about this person? 

According to an article in the New York Times from April 2002, the well-respected Oxford University philosophy professor, Richard Swinburne, used a broadly accepted probability theory to defend the truth of Christ's resurrection. He did this at a high-profile gathering of philosophy professors at Yale University. "For someone dead for 36 hours to come to life again is, according to the laws of nature, extremely improbable," Swinburne said. "But if there is a God of the traditional kind, natural laws only operate because he makes them operate."

An old story tells of a man who found a baby eagle and released it in his chicken coop. The eagle learned to scratch for corn and seeds, to strut like a rooster, and to sleep in the hen house. It soon decided that it must be a chicken.

Many of us entertain misconceptions about God.  For instance, we don't understand His viewpoint on pleasure.  One way of describing heaven is that it will be the uninterrupted enjoyment of God.  Every second of eternity will be exhilarating.

You and I could name things, specific things that we've gone through in the last several years that make no logical sense whatsoever . . . but that's okay.

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.