KneEmail - a devotional by Mike Benson associated with Forthright Magazine
Kneemail - Faith
DON'T BE TOO harsh with Thomas (John 20:24-31)... There is a time to doubt. Thomas, like the other apostles, had left all to follow Jesus. Then Jesus up and died. Yes, He had forewarned them. But God does not...
AT FIRST WE feel pity for the unnamed "man of God" described in 1 Kings 13... After all, he accepted a potentially dangerous mission from God by confronting evil King Jeroboam about the unauthorized altar he had built in...
MOST PEOPLE FIGHT against change, especially when it affects them personally... As novelist Leo Tolstoy said, "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." The ironic thing is that change is inevitable. Everybody has...
WHAT IF SOMEONE knocked on your door today and asked, "Could I sell you some misery today...? What have all kinds for sale." Would you buy it? Of course not, but many of us, including me, have "bought" it...
THE VERB "BEWARE" is used in the New Testament 31 times... That in itself shows that there is constant danger in living the Christian life. The prophet Ezekiel warns of the same danger mentioned here. God's people were in danger...
A SENIOR HAD backed a meek little freshman into a corner and was bombarding him with an impressive string of scientific facts... He said, "Did you know that...? Are you aware of...? Does it interest you...?" Finally, the beleaguered freshman...
IF YOU WANT to be saved from your sins, just believing in Jesus is not enough... The first time the Gospel is ever preached is in Acts chapter 2. Peter preaches Jesus as a miracle-working teacher whom the Jews had...
THE BIBLE ACKNOWLEDGES the problem of anxiety... An awful lot of people's answer to anxiety is medication. I certainly don't want to make light of the very serious issues of anxiety with which many people must cope in their...
FAITH IS INDISPENSIBLE in the lives of individual Christians (Hebrews 11:6)... Faith is also the vital ingredient for church growth. The words "faith" and "belief" are used almost 500 times in the New Testament. No individual or congregation can ever...
FAITH IS INDISPENSIBLE in the lives of individual Christians (Hebrews 11:6)... Faith is also the vital ingredient for church growth. The words "faith" and "belief" are used almost 500 times in the New Testament. No individual or congregation can ever...
FAITH IS INDISPENSIBLE in the lives of individual Christians (Hebrews 11:6)... Faith is also the vital ingredient for church growth. The words "faith" and "belief" are used almost 500 times in the New Testament. No individual or congregation can ever...
MY DEAR FRIENDS..., You know around here we are experiencing hardships, but we thank the Lord He is comforting us and caring for us in every way. When we experience misfortune, adversity, distress and hardship, only then do we see...
ON PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S first Saturday in Washington as President, a member of the Cabinet insisted that a Cabinet meeting must be called... Garfield refused on the grounds of another engagement. The Cabinet member insisted. Garfield still refused on the grounds...
THE DAY OF Jesus' resurrection was a day of disbelief... The apostles thought the first report of Jesus' resurrection was "nonsense" and they "would not believe" (Luke 24:11). Two other disciples spent significant time with Jesus on that day without...
SOME YEARS AGO, I picked up one of those plastic water cooler containers at a nearby yard sale and converted it into a piggy bank of sorts... And each time that my family and I returned from the store,...
WITHOUT QUESTION, THE best-known verse in the Bible is John 3:16... Martin Luther called it the Bible in miniature, and some even go so far as to say that if the Bible were lost except for John 3:16, we would...
WHEN I WAS a little kid, I got a pretty nasty burn on my leg... The doctor applied a bandage designed to adhere to the burned skin. The bandage was made of a material that had a healing ointment in...
NOTHING IS WORSE than the memory of a mistake... It is like a haunting specter, hovering over your shoulder, constantly whispering one word in your ear: "Shame." You find it hard to laugh, to hope, to dream. You know what...
THE ISRAELITES OF old, failed to "mix" their hearing of God's word with faith (Hebrews 4:2)... Did they believe in God's existence? Yes. Did they believe that God had promised them Canaan? Yes. Did they believe in God enough to...
IT WAS A fog-shrouded morning, July 4, 1952, when a young woman named Florence Chadwick waded into the water off Catalina Island... She intended to swim the channel from the island to the California coast. Long-distance swimming was not new...
NOAH CONSTRUCTED THE ark by faith (Hebrews 11:7)... Did Noah spend a hundred years building the ark with an uncertifiable faith? Did Noah's faith declare, "I believe that God is, that He has instructed me to build an ark, but...
WHENEVER YOU FIND yourself going through times of testing, there is always a reason...a very good reason... In fact, there are several reasons. Testing times are to: UNCOVER something: When God allows pressures and trials, it is so that you...
BARNA RESEARCH GROUP found that: . Eighty-two percent of regular Bible readers described themselves as "at peace" compared to 58 percent of those who said they never read the Bible. . Seventy-eight percent of regular Bible readers said they felt...
THERE ARE NO INFIDELS (atheists) anywhere but on earth... There are none in heaven, and there are none in hell. Atheism is a strange thing. Even the demons never fell into that vice, for "the demons also believe, and tremble"...
A CROWD GATHERED around Jesus' disciples... A demon-possessed boy had been brought to them, but they were unable to cast out the devil. When Jesus appeared, the father rushed to him, desperate for someone to help his son. "But...
MICHAEL HODGEN TELLS a rather humorous story about a man dressed in a devil outfit who was on his way to a costume party when suddenly he got caught in a rain storm. Searching for cover from the downpour, the...
GOD INSTRUCTED MOSES to return to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of bondage (Exo. 3)... The reason given by God for Moses' return to Egypt at this time was that God had "surely seen the oppression of My people...
JESUS TOLD THE twelve to get into a boat on the Sea of Galilee... As they started across the sea, everything was smooth and calm, and Jesus went to sleep. Suddenly a huge wind blasted on the sea and the...
THE STORY IS told of a young man who came to the door of a monastery with a large duck in his arms... His uncle, who happened to be one of the monks, answered the knock. "Here, uncle, this is...
DAVID WAS MOVING the ark of the covenant... The Philistines had captured it but sent it back to Israel. They did this by placing the ark on a cart drawn by two milk cows (1 Sam. 6:2, 10-12; 7:1). When...
WE ARE NOT left in ignorance whether Nicodemus came to Jesus by night... The universal and unanimous response from all believers in the Bible is that he did. We can be united perfectly in believing this fact. This is because...
I ONCE VISITED the testing room of a large steel mill... I was surrounded by instruments and equipment that tested pieces of steel to their limits and measured their breaking point. Some pieces had been twisted until they broke, and...
ON MY RECENT trip to Oklahoma, I was privileged to also experience my first flight... To most people, I assume, this would be a welcome new experience. For me, it was something akin to a claustrophobic being buried alive in...
LAST VETERANS' DAY, I bought a poppy from those nice ladies outside the post office... That night an 18-year-old girl spotted the flower attached to my shirt pocket and asked what it was for. I was a little taken aback....
THE STORY IS told of a man in a fancy restaurant who started to choke on a bone... A doctor rushed over, identified himself as a doctor, and reassured the man that he was going to be all right. He...
DURING THE GREAT Depression a good man lost his job, exhausted his savings, and forfeited his home... His grief was multiplied by the sudden death of his precious wife. The only thing he had left was his faith, and it...