Caesarea Philippi was the “Sin City” of Israel, where the people worshiped Caesar, Baal, and Pan through sexual immorality and wild partying.
For every sleazeball in the business there are plenty of decent and wonderful people.
Mom thinks I live in this dream world where everybody’s Ivana Trump.
Over the years my mom has become a self-taught Biblical scholar.
People were referring to me as the new Anita Bryant. Anita would get a little jealous.
When I was almost 13 I was ripe for religion. I was actually just plain ripe.
To me an audition is 30 crazed people in a room waiting to be axed.
I would never want to hurt anyone by writing a book.
A two-career couple with children is a complex, sensitive piece of machinery with lots of moving parts. Anything less than total cooperation will throw it out of whack and shut it down. A couple can wind up paying the ultimate price for trying to have it all – losing it all.
To this day I do not believe I’m great at anything.
What a dire time to be attracted to men.
Identity is destiny. If you allow your life to be defined by lies or by people who do not truly know who God created you to be, then you will be robbed of both your true identity and your full destiny. Our identity must come from and be found in the Lord.
But no fifty-year-old can compete with a twenty-year-old.
The way to overcome the impossible has always been the same. Don’t fear the giants. The Lord is with you always. Just believe and fight! You already have the victory.
The root of all sin goes back to the garden of Eden. The result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience was exile for them and all their descendants after them. Living in exile means living in a perpetual state of disconnection and separation that ultimately leads to death if not remedied. There are four aspects to exile: spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical.
The Jews were the first monotheistic culture in history. They believed in one God and one God only. The Greco-Roman world of Herod’s day was polytheistic. They believed in many gods, and much of their worship was sexual in nature.
Think how your life would be changed if you passionately longed for and lived every day as if this would be the moment Jesus would return!
Clearly, having friends improves our lives. And best friends? They make every good thing even better.
Jesus is the messianic craftsman whom Zechariah spoke about.
Romans 8:28 tells us, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.