Hi, I’m Howie Campbell, and this is a Wisdom and Truth Minute.
Traveling through the southwestern United States, I pulled off the side of the road for a breather. Across the road was a huge boulder, and in the middle of it, growing out of a crevice, was a lone pine tree. Incredulous, I had to go take a look. Where does that tenacious pine get enough water and nutrients to grow, I wonder? You know the phrase, “stuck between a rock and a hard place”? It was a perfect example of a tree growing, and even flourishing, in a really hard place. Having struggles, my friend? With the Holy Spirit to nurture you, and God’s word to nourish you, you too can flourish in that hard place. Be steadfast, friends – 1 Corinthians 15:58.
Hi, I’m Howie Campbell, and this is a Wisdom and Truth Minute.
“O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come; our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home.” Isaac Watts penned these great lyrics in the 1700’s, and they are just as powerful today as they were then. They contain eternal truth.
So does this verse from Isaiah 64 that Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.” Do you love God, my friend? Is living for Jesus your desire and goal? Let me assure you, God has amazing things prepared for you – you can’t even imagine.
Hi, I’m Howie Campbell, and this is a Wisdom and Truth Minute.
From my current vantage point, my life is split into two major divisions: half before Christ, half with Christ. Most of what I learned the first half, I processed and responded to with my material mind. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” That’s why Jesus said in John 3, “You must be born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit, is spirit.”
This past half of my life, I process and respond to things with my spiritually-alive mind. How about you, my friend? Have you been born again?
Hi, I’m Howie Campbell, and this is a Wisdom and Truth Minute.
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (1 Corinthians 13:11)
Children are in the learning stage of life. They haven’t had a lot of life experience, don’t have a lot of knowledge, haven’t had to make the hard decisions as much. That’s why they often make poor choices, or at least, not the best ones, like grabbing a toy away from another child, or hitting, calling names, getting angry and lashing out. Paul says he grew up and put away childish things. We find him saying this in his famous chapter on love: greater than faith, greater than hope, is love, my friend.
Hi, I’m Howie Campbell, and this is a Wisdom and Truth Minute.
Can you, at this moment, see what’s going on a hundred miles from you? Do you know the details of what will take place in your life tomorrow? Of course not. We’re locked in to space and time.
But God does. In fact, he’s there waiting, while at the same time being with you now. We can do all the planning, hoping, and working toward the future we want, but we really don’t know what the future holds.
This is a timeless truth. About 2000 years ago, the apostle Paul quoted from Isaiah the prophet, who lived about 600 years before him. 1 Corinthians 2:9 says: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for him who love him.” It’s a good thing we know who holds the future, and your future is looking good!