Taste and See

Coming from the same mouth, curses poison blessings until you can't tell them apart (Jas 3:10-12). 

'Tis the set of the sails, And not the gales, That determines the way we go.” —Ella Wheeler Wilcox 

A bird doesn't sing out of duty or duress, but because it has a song within and must sing it. 

“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth” (Prov 27:1). That's for sure! 

Not to be confused with “running the gauntlet” (Swedish, gatlopp, meaning “loping the course”). 

The devil isn't independent. God sustains him, and, in spite of himself, he advances God's purposes. 

The believing home is a hothouse for growth, a lighthouse of truth, and a storehouse of blessings. 

Job suffers not because he's the worst of men but because he's the best: “there is none like him” (Job 1:8).

That the book of Job is superb poetry doesn't negate the fact that it is also dramatic biography. 

Job's longing for a Mediator and confident hope in a Redeemer point us surely to the coming Christ.

One fact Job will teach us: You won't really know God is all you need until God is all you have. 

God's mysterious questions are more worthwhile than man's professed answers to life. 

If the purpose of life is a life of purpose, we will need to have God's wisdom to know what it is. 

“Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other” (Isa 45:22).

Light of the pilgrim heart, Star of the coming day! Arise with morning beams, And chase our griefs away” (E. Denny). 

“Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord!” (Deut 33:29). 

“The nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly ruined” (Isa 60:12). 

Those who would attack God's people might like to know beforehand that God is for us (Rom 8:31). 

“…and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own” —J.R.L.

“The tongue destroys a greater horde,” The Turk asserts, “than does the sword” (P.B. Strong). 

“You are in for trouble,…if you think what you do in the dark can't be seen” (Isa 29:15, CEV). 

A man hated and slated to die—but now riding in kingly honor. This reminds me of Someone! 

Let me confess: It takes great restraint not to put exclamation points after every sentence! See!

“The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands” (Prov 14:1). 

You can't find better stories anywhere. And wait till you see the story behind the story. It's electric!

It's been said that coincidence is God's pseudonym when He wishes to remain anonymous. 

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to confront it with God's help and overcome it.

When history seems to hang by a thread, remember: “He hangs the earth on nothing” (Job 26:7). 

Conceit is a strange disease in that, when a person has it, it makes everyone else sick!

“How unsearchable are His judgments…and how unfathomable and untraceable are His ways! ” (Rom 11:33, AMP). 

Cinderella has nothing on Esther. This young woman will change the whole course of history! 

Parties and drinking and divorce and beauty contests and murder plots and…God turned it to good?

“Love is patient and kind;…it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way” (1 Cor 13:4-5, ESV).

Two drinking parties going on at the same time in the same town. They'll soon connect. What could go wrong? 

“Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.” —William Cowper 

Nehemiah empathized with the people's needs, emended their mistakes, and encouraged their success. 

“Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,…You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth!” (Ps 80:1). 

The priesthood we enjoy today, as with Christ's High Priesthood, is not according to law but by grace. 

God's good and acceptable and perfect will, believe it or not, awaits your willingness (Rom 12:1-2). 

How good to know that God promises to keep His people, and then promises to keep His promises! 

The willingness to be, and to have, just what God wants for us would set our hearts at rest. 

One big difference bet ween saints and sinners is where they go to satisfy their inner hunger. 

“God doesn't give us joy instead of sorrow, or in spite of sorrow, but joy in the midst of sorrow.” —W. Wiersbe 

How could they be expected to do the will of God if they didn't know the Word of God? How can we? 

Lies are often confused with history. The real story is often written by unheralded heroes.

Good leaders should not only talk but toil; not only toil but train; not only train but transfer. 

The life of faith can no more be sustained by flattery than it can be destroyed by criticism. 

Tobiah and company couldn't betray Nehemiah; they had to pay a friend he trusted to do that. 

“I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust'” (Ps 91:2). 

Is there a God-honoring objective? A plan to take you there? A commitment to follow through? 

In the life of faith, it's impossible to enrich others without ourselves becoming soul-enriched.