KneEmail - a devotional by Mike Benson associated with Forthright Magazine
Kneemail - God
WHEN THE X-RAY comes back and it doesn't look good, remember...God is still faithful... When you read that heart-breaking note from your mate, remember...God is still faithful. When you hear the worst kind of news about one of your...
"WE ARE THANKFUL for a faithful wife, husband, bank teller, teacher, doctor, etc... But how much more to rejoice over the fact that the most faithful of all is God!" H. L. Willmington in Basic Stages in the Rock...
WHEN WE THINK of Elijah, we never think of him as one who would doubt because he was strong and bold when he encountered the false prophets at Mount Carmel... He proved that God was the true God of...
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...
WE ALL HAVE walls... Not the stone, concrete, or wooden ones that typically surround properties, but emotional ones. Ther are parts of our lives that we keep walled off from other people. The closer we are to someone, the fewer...
ONE OF THE most unusual and possibly confusing statements in the Bible is, "Out of them all the Lord delivered me..." (2 Timothy 3:11)... Paul wrote this about the events recorded in Acts 13 - 15. As Paul and Barnabas...
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...
One was a bitter atheist, the other a devout Christian. Constantly annoyed at the Christian for trusting God, the athiest said to him one winter, "Let's plant our crops as usual this spring, each the same number of acres....
CONSIDER THAT A faithful Christian wife doesn't submit to her husband because he is stronger... She does so because of her conviction that this is God's will. Most women have within their power to control and manipulate their husband if...
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...
WHERE DID WE come from...? Who are we? Why are we here? How should we live? Where are we going? The answers to each of these questions depend on the existence of God. If God exists, then there's ultimate meaning...
So many celebrities have died recently, it reminds one of the death, in 1715, of King Louis XIV of France, after a reign of 72 years. He had called himself "the Great." The monarch had made the infamous statement, "I...
"YOU'LL HAVE A hard time topping him...!" This was the comment made by a well-intentioned Christian lady to the next speaker on the lectureship. He responded to this sister, "I don't want to top him. We're on the same side."...
APPROXIMATELY FIVE THOUSAND ships departed England on June 6, 1944 for the coast of Normandy to take place in the greatest invasion of World War II... One skipper, lecturing his crew on fear, declared, "Fear is a healthy thing." One...
FOR RELATIVISTS JUSTICE is simply the plaything of the courts... Or, in the words of Charles Evans Hughes, "the Constitution is what the judges say it is." Even more disturbing were the words of Chief Justice Fred Vinson, in the...
HE HAD WORK to do... He was active and involved. But He also knew that He couldn't do it all without meeting alone with the Father. He refused to be tyrannized by the immediate and urgent. He knew that the...
THE YOUNG LADY stopped by the book store to pick up a book, the best-seller of the day... She hurried home with anticipation of spending a pleasant evening with the book. After arranging the comfortable chair and the reading light,...
WHEN SOMEONE BEGINS speaking by saying, "The ONLY thing you have to do to be saved is..." they involve themselves in error or double talk... There is no "alone" in the salvation process. It takes a combination of things on...
The Prodigal Son, in the Key of 'F' Feeling footloose and frisky, a feather-brained fellow forced his fond father to fork over the family finances. He flew far to foreign fields and frittered his fortune feasting fabulously with faithless friends....
IMAGINE YOU'RE SITTING in your living room, enjoying a peaceful afternoon while reading the paper... Suddenly, a baseball flies into the room, shattering your window. Obviously, your first question wouldn't be, "How did it get here?" It would be, in...
THE SALMON NEARLY leaped onto to their hooks... That was a far cry from the day before when the four anglers couldn't even seem to catch an old boot. Disappointed but not discouraged, they had climbed aboard their small seaplane...
CARS GO THROUGH a systemized process in their formation... They don't just build themselves from iron and elements found in soil; they're formed and fashioned in automotive factories. Likewise, concertos are birthed through composers, paintings come from painters and inventions...
I CAN COUNT on one hand my most intimate friends, those with whom I would share anything... I can hardly think of a boundary on our conversations. We reached that plane of relationship after long hours together and considerable risk....
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...
IT'S IMPORTANT TO be careful where you place your trust... Some barbers say "trust me" as half of your eyebrow falls into your lap. Some dentists say "trust me" as they drill down deeper than Exxon. Some postal workers say...
BRITISH BIOLOGIST THOMAS Huxley was a staunch defender of evolution -- so much so that he was often referred to as "Darwin's Bulldog..." In responding to those of his day who questioned the likelihood of "blind chance" being able to...
WATCH A SUNSET... Stare at the waves of the ocean. Examine a leaf or a flower. Hold a newborn baby. Our eyes don't have to travel far to find proof that the earth was intricately designed. The world around us...
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"...
WE RAISED PIGS... We raised about a thousand pigs a year. In one field we had two or three hundred little oinkers running around. Every day, at four in the morning, as I'd walk into the field to feed...
I'VE TRIED TO imagine what a deer feels when it suddenly realizes that someone or something is pursuing it... The way its tail flares up and its body crouches in readiness to spring into an escape makes me wonder if...
A SEAGULL DOES not freeze even while standing on ice with bare feet... How does this creature conserve its body heat? Part of the secret is in what are called countercurrent heart exchangers. A countercurrent heat exchanger consists of a...
SCIENTISTS AGREE THAT the universe is constantly communicating with us... When we hear this, most of us imagine some half-crazed researcher spending decades listening to static noise from outer space, waiting for some abnormal yet distinct pattern or variance. For...
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH century, no skeptic delighted in finding humor at the expense of the Bible (and Christianity in general) more than Francois-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire... His rejection of a personal God -- of God as Father --...
WHEN JOHN F. Kennedy was President of the United States, Life magazine published photos of his children, John Jr. and Caroline, playing with their toys on the floor of the Oval office... Those images captured the hearts of the American...
ONE OF GOD'S most encouraging attributes is His longsuffering... The merciful patience of God Almighty gives His redeemed, albeit imperfect, church hope and support. Immediately following a reminder to the Christians in Rome that the Old Testament was "written for...
CONSIDER THE PLIGHT of atheists... They admit morals exist -- otherwise they wouldn't have a problem with you murdering their family members. However, they refuse to acknowledge a belief in God. As such, they must contend that morals arose from...
MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE that the God of Islam and the God of the Bible are the same God... I beg to differ with them on that point. Let me offer just one point to the contrary. According to the Koran,...
I ONCE READ of an incident that took place during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II... A young man, just 18 years old lay mortally wounded in a foxhole. Those around him could do nothing to console...
HOWARD RUTLEDGE, A United States Air Force pilot, was shot down over North Viet Nam during the early stages of the war... He spent several miserable years in the hands of his captors before being released at the war's conclusion....
A LAWYER WAS at home one pleasant Sunday afternoon... He retired into his study, closed the door shut behind him, and began to busily prepare for a case that he was to try the next morning. As the lawyer was...
ON AUGUST 27, 1960, US Air Force Captian Joseph Kittinger Jr. sat in a gondola suspended from a high-altitude balloon... When the balloon reached 102,800 feet about the surface of Earth (more than 19 miles), Kittinger jumped out. Four minutes...
NEARLY ALL CHRISTIANS go through peaks and valleys... We find ourselves sometimes close to God and at other times distant, sometimes disciplined and at other times lax, sometimes taking our faith seriously and other times unaware that there is a...
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND fans filled the stadium... Many payed scalper's prices that would buy an Audi. Millions more watched on television. In Brazil, business halted when their team practiced. This was bigger than the NBA finals, bigger than the Super...
IN 1977, THE United States launched a rocket into space... On board was a small craft called Voyager I, a probe that was jettisoned into space to explore the planets. After Voyager was done spending back photos and data from...
..."THE TEMPLE OF the Thousand Buddhas," [is] an unusual place of worship in Kyoto, Japan, where worshipers can literally design their own deity... The temple is filled with more than a thousand likenesses of Buddha -- each one a little...
WHEN NATURE RUNS amuck and life and property lie twisted in its wake, such tragic destruction is erroneously described as an act of God... A drunken driver closes the eyes of a child in the sleep of death, and a...
IT WAS A sad day in May 2003 when "The Old Man of the Mountain" broke apart and slid down the mountainside... This 40-foot profile of an old man's face, carved by nature in the White Mountains of New Hampshire,...
A NUMBER OF years ago the most magnificent diamond in the history of the world was found in an African mine... It was then presented to the king of England to embellish his crown of state. The king sent it...
WHEN HITLER'S NUMBER two Nazi, Hermann Goering, was placed in prison awaiting execution, a prison chaplain visited him to talk about preparing to meet God... Goering ridiculed the Bible and refused to accept that Christ died for sinners. He denied...
DURING ANTARCTICA'S 9-MONTH winter, the continent is engulfed in darkness and the temperature sinks to -115 F (-82 C)... Flights are halted from late February to November, leaving workers at scattered research stations isolated and virtually cut off from outside...
WHY DO WE say reverential awe...? It's to indicate that his sense of awe is specifically directed toward God. Imagine yourself driving across one of our central states on a sultry, overcast day. Suddenly you catch sight of a violent...
THREE SPACEWALKING ASTRONAUTS reached up with their gloved hands yesterday and caught a 4 1/2-ton, slowly spinning satellite in a risky, last-ditch attempt to save the craft... "Houston, I think we got a satellite," said shuttle commander Daniel Brandenstein from...
AS SHAMEFUL AS Peter's betrayal was, it was not the only act of forsakenness that Jesus was to endure... He was betrayed by Pontius Pilate. During his interrogation by Pilate, Jesus was judged to be innocent of the charges brought...
IF GOD DOES not exist, then all moral value, all ethics, all right and wrong are purely subjective... That means morality is merely the product of human being arbitrarily deciding what is right and wrong... This is precisely what happened...
IT IS VERY fashionable today to affirm a relationship with God while denying such a relationship by one's manner of life and conduct... Knowing God is more than mere lip service and wearing a gold cross on a chain around...
IN 1985, FREDERICK Holliday, the superintendent of Cleveland's public schools, shot himself through the heart with a .357 magnum... In a suicide note he said that although he had achieved great success, he could not tolerate being stripped of his...
IT TAKES SPIRITUAL discernment to see in a situation of injustice (like the persecution of the innocent) evidence of the just judgment of God... Our habit is to see only the surface appearance, and so make only superficial comments. We...
OUR SOCIETY IS highly impersonal... The Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Motor Vehicles, banks, schools, and stores have succeeded in virtually reducing us to numbers that generate sophisticated computer form letters. Weeks, even months, may go by when the...