Blog
I got a year older today. January 1 marks my 76th year. On my 65th birthday, I joked with Jan and said that we had now become old. She shot back and said, “We aren’t old yet!” On my 70th birthday, I asked the same question and received the same response. Last...
I used to hike, doing what is called “bush-wacking.” I hiked for miles across trail-less terrain using a topographical map whose imagery revealed the various elevations of a mountain range and the locations of deep, dead-end canyons. Following that map saved me a lot...
Our faith is a connection with the hope of God found only in Christ. That connection remains secure over time, even when our disappointments and failures make us think it has been severed. This is especially true for the prodigal sons and daughters in our lives...
When an evil act takes place, like the assassination attempt on President Trump, we can miss seeing the miracle of God’s rescue because we allowed our negative predisposition to limit our understanding of what happened. What muddles our understanding are the...
The Church has been called to speak truth even when the truth is not popular or accepted. That kind of speech requires courage when forces are set against its release even drawing on our legal system to silence its message of dissent. At some point, threats of...
Two days ago, I shared a word about surprises coming in both the political and financial realms. ( https://garriselkins.com/surprises-are-coming-2/ ). As the assassination attempt took place against President Trump, I knew that event was the beginning of those...
Every life has a turning point that will change how we interpret our suffering. That point turns our thinking toward a place of hope even if the evidence of hope is not yet present. It is a point where we recognize God’s mercy is present and will appear in our place...
I appreciate a principled life. But if we are driven only by principles and not by compassion, the principle will fall flat and become a hard and loveless response to those who are suffering. After listening to Bildad’s insensitive words as to why Job was suffering,...
A few minutes ago, I asked the Lord to reveal what is about to happen in our world, He said one word to me, “Surprises.” A surprise is an unexpected event. There will be surprises in the political arena followed by surprises in the financial world as the year comes to...
When people are grieving and suffering, especially someone who has loved God and served Him, our most valuable contribution is silence as we stand with them in their place of pain. Feeling the to speak a “could of-should of” kind of word is the last thing they need to...
I’m currently reading the book of Job. Job has been rejected by some who struggle with its content, even the nature of God expressed in its pages. Some have called Job a man without faith because of what happened to him. Those dismissive comments express...
The edifice of our religion and the institutions of our nation are being tested to determine their integrity. As it has been through all of history, nothing that is not under the authority of the Lord will succeed. No era of human history is immune from such an...
Last night, I had a disturbing dream. In the dream, I was speaking to a married couple and mentioned the beauty of the Old Testament. The women welled up in tearful anger and shouted, “It’s judgment!” I was shocked at the woman’s response and then the dream ended....
In the Church, there are expressions of both left and right in the current political and social structures. If our efforts are focused only on those agendas, we will become distracted and miss something even greater. We will miss the ability to identify the unseen...
This week, I had two experiences that reminded me of the beauty and power of innocence. The first experience happened while I was shopping and came across a display of children’s books. There on the shelf was a book my mother used to read to me, Poky Little Puppy....