Christian Counseling & Educational Services

We’ve just concluded a wonderful summer Bible study based on Philip Patterson’s book, Living Stones. It’s an inspiring book that looks at the lessons of forgiveness, courage, victory and more that can be learned from the stories told in the Bible that involve stones. Patterson points out an interesting fact in the story about the woman caught in adultery found in John 8:1-11. It’s something that I’d never thought about before.

In the Book of Daniel, the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego vividly portrays a truth that can hold you fast in the toughest of times. These three young Jewish men worshipped and served God. Although they served King Nebuchadnezar in his court, they refused to worship his 90-foot golden image, even when they were told they would face instant death by being thrown into an intensely hot fiery furnace. Their response to these threats? A respectful statement that in essence declared, “Our God is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace, but if not we will still be faithful to Him, for He will deliver us from you. Either way, God has us!�

He was a scruffy looking fellow sitting in his wheelchair near the exit at the grocery store. Grey hair poked out in all directions underneath his tilted baseball cap. The thing I noticed most about him, however, was his look of discouragement and disappointment. Then I saw the lottery tickets in his hand. He looked down at them and shook his head sadly. Obviously his expectation of winning had been dashed, and he went from hope to despair with just the swipe of a coin over that little silver patch on his ticket. My heart went out to him partly because of his physical condition, partly because of his apparent financial hardship, but most of all because his hope rested on the shaky ground of chance and lottery tickets.

“Pardon me.� You know the words. You’ve said them before when you bumped into someone or did something that was offensive to another person. You know you’re guilty of something, and you’re asking to be excused from that guilt.