David Young's Blog (363)

One of my favorite events in scripture is the night Jacob wrestled with God. I don't believe you find anything like this in any religious teaching other than the Bible. The God who created the universe humbles Himself to wrestle with a man. The story is in Genesis 32.



Jacob feared that he and his family would be attacked by his brother, Esau, and…

Any sin is serious. And God's people are not immune to the enemy’s temptations, although we are given armor against them. To some extent, it is not unusual for God’s people to be sucked into whatever sin dominates our culture. But those who desire to be godly will seek deliverance from the sin of the world around us.



The sin that is shaking our country is slander. It is prevalent on…

God has helped me a great deal with these four keys to memorizing Scripture. You too will find them helpful, especially if you are trying to commit large portions of Scripture to memory. They are to Slow Down, Calm Down, Focus, and Pray. God gave me these things in the struggle to…

I am writing especially to you who are pastors, but much of what I have to say will apply to any believer in Jesus Christ. I suspect that much of what is pressed upon us by the church growth movement and its widely accepted continuations are little more than superstition. Some of these things remind me of the labors of Jacob in the 30th chapter of…

While this quarantine is difficult for people all over the world, it is not quite as hard on writers. I do not simply mean that people need our reading material to fill the time. Writers need solitude to write. While many of us have had to learn to write in the midst of the hubbub, it always helps to be alone. This doesn't mean…

There is a sense in which the most important part of a tree is its root system. The stability and nourishment of a tree come from its roots. And, of course, the roots grow more slowly than the branches. So it is with our spiritual lives.

For this reason and others, I recommend Scripture memory as a discipline of prayer. It is not impossible to…

What do you do when you have to wait a long time for something to happen? With the quarantine over Covid19 many of us are finding more time on our hands than ever before. Waiting can be difficult, almost painful. Many years ago, I served as a student summer missionary in Uganda. Possibly the most striking difference between the East African culture and the one I grew up in, was that people had little concept of hurry. I used to joke that I sometimes needed to get…

Selah is not translated in our English Bibles. We just have the transliteration of the Hebrew word. But if you follow its usage, you can get a good grip on its meaning. It is used at the end of each stanza of Psalm 46. I have italicized it for you.

We seldom use the word behold in common speech. But it is a crucial word in Scripture and an essential concept for our spiritual lives. I could have posted this on my thinking in the Spirit blog, but particularly because of the passage I have chosen, I…

(Adapted from HOPE, The Anchor of The Soul)

The Anchor of Perspective

Understanding that Jesus really rose from the dead has transformed the lives of people who have followed Him down through the ages. They could minister in the midst of plagues at the risk of their lives. They gladly died to help their neighbors, and loved ones, and people they didn’t even know. They were willing to stand for the Bible and the truth of the gospel even…

I believe this is the most important truth that God has pressed upon me in the past few years. I wrote a book that was never published, titled, SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE. I abandoned that book because God convicted me that part of my purpose in writing it was to say, “I am smart.” I am still plumbing the depth of that wickedness. In addition to and because of my pride, the focus of about half of that book was wrong. I would rather write something on Spiritual…

The Gospel of Luke, like each of the Gospels, gives us a little information the others do not. Look with me at two events recorded in Luke chapter 9. The first that I want us to look at is Luke 9:18.

I remember my father saying the blessing at every meal as I was growing up. That memory continues to bless me everyday of my life. It was not unlike the blessing of Jesus over the loaves and fish.

Luke…

Last week I wrote a blog on praying for healing. http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/2020/01/healing-faith.html. Healing is close to my heart. For, although I didn't mention it in that blog, I have terminal cancer. However, I have an unusual testimony…

To the woman with the issue of blood who snuck up behind Jesus and touched the hem of His garment Jesus said. “Your faith has made you well.” Jesus taught us some powerful things about faith in Luke chapter 8. There are some principles of faith here that apply to praying for physical healing and much more. Look with me at this passage beginning with verse 43.

In Luke 8:16 Jesus warned us to be careful how we hear. This is a rather stunning warning against only catching the surface meaning of what He has to say to you.

Luke 8:18

I am not sure I have anything to say to those of you who…

One of my favorite movies is Chariots of Fire. It tells the story of men competing in the 1924 Olympics. At one point in the movie the fiancee of Harold Abrahams, who would win the 100 meter race, asked why he was so possessed by his training. One of the other runners said, “Because he has the chance of being the fastest.” She counters, “But all of you are running in the Olympics.” He answers, he does not just have the chance of being a…

Jesus’s statement about justifying God before men is among the quiet things in The Gospels. Yet this his is at the heart of what God does with our lives. Luke 7:29-30 says,

“When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not…

There has to be a point where any of us begins to pray to a God that we know little about. I often think those are refreshing prayers. We find one of these in the 24th chapter of Genesis. Abraham sends his servant on a mission that would be impossible without the direction of God. After traveling for weeks he stops outside the town where Abraham's family lived, and prays.

“O LORD, God of…

I have had several striking coincidences this week. I am reminded of something I recently read, and you have read or heard many times. A hard-bitten detective in a mystery novel said, “I don't believe in coincidences.” Accidental coincidences are an unlikely explanation of many things that take place.

This week I wrote a pastor friend whom I have not seen in several years. I said I was praying for God to do more in…