Being prepared for your calling is like going to a pizzeria. I’m talking about a real pizza place, one where they make the pies on the spot. It all starts with a ball of dough. They roll the dough, pressing and mashing it. Then they start pounding on it. After banging it around for a while, they start throwing it up in the air and twirling it. That dough goes through a whole lot so that you and I can have the pleasure of eating it.
Second Corinthians was a follow-up letter to Paul’s earlier letter to the church in that city. It seems that after penning the first letter, Paul made a visit there that proved to be painful (2 Corinthians 2:1). Clearly the church in Corinth had not responded with the changes Paul had urged upon them in 1 Corinthians. Sometimes God’s people need a firm reminder to stay committed to God and His purposes.
Ruth is a small book with a big message. It is personal, prophetic, and filled with theological insight. The book centers on a gentile woman named Ruth, and through all the challenges she faces we see a demonstration of God’s providence, grace, love, and redemption. It’s a story with a happy ending.
Have you ever gone to your refrigerator in search of a stick of butter to eat? You felt the hunger gnawing at the inside of your stomach and so you thought, “If I could only get a bite of butter, I would be fine.”
Faith isn’t merely feeling like God is telling the truth. Nor is it saying God is telling the truth. For faith to truly be faith, it involves acting like God is telling the truth. That’s why the Bible calls it walking by faith, not talking by faith or even feeling by faith.