Articles

It was a Sunday morning. I arrived at church early to take my post as usher, ready to greet newcomers as well as our regular attendees.

I sat alone at one point, praying something like, “Wow, I honestly thought I’d do okay at this parenting thing, but God, I feel like I am messing up and I really, really need Your guidance right now to help these kids. ” In the Bible, the Apostle Paul said, “When I am weak, then am I strong” ( II Corinthians 12:10 ).

As a teenager , I was working above a new display of soda pop at my job in a grocery store when some bottles exploded, sending shards of glass into my face and eyes. Soon after, I sat alone in a hospital emergency room waiting for my mother to arrive to authorize medical treatment because I was a minor.

In an article titled “Follow the Science?” New York Times columnist David Leonhardt observes, “Many people have come to believe that expert opinion is a unitary, omniscient force. That’s the assumption behind the phrases ‘follow the science’ and ‘what the science says.

A deep dive into the Bible shows us that many individuals experienced God’s saving and protecting power in the face of extreme adversity. Starting with Genesis, we read of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and other key figures such as Sarah and Joseph, who saw God’s laws of harmony overcome such afflictions as floods, loneliness, hunger, disease, infertility, greed, jealousy, rivalry, and abandonment.

Over the years I have had so many examples of God lovingly caring for me. I’ve found that God meets my every need, even when circumstances seem beyond help.

For many people, including me, the Bible is a spiritual guide from which to draw strength, a source of inspiration, a message whose power can pull them out of the quagmire. It comforts us in these words: “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

What we can expect on Easter morning—and every day.

When a Christian wants to work out the right course of action in a given situation, he or she might ask, “What would Jesus do?” But, “What did Jesus know—and how can I know it, too?” might be more to the point of what is needed to be a better Christian. For example, the Gospel of Luke describes Jesus meeting ten lepers at the entrance of a village.

Just before his crucifixion, Jesus was understandably concerned about the future of Christianity and the discouraging direction it looked like it was taking. Nearly all of his followers were about to disconnect from him, including all of his disciples but John.