PaulStiver.com

Photo by  Daan Stevens  on  Unsplash The car cruised along the old road. The darkness of the night only emboldened by the distant moon caused the road to appear almost in a haze. The glow of the headlights on her car weren't enough to create good visibility. Yet here she was, cruising listlessly down the road because she realized she just had to drive. She had to get out of the house, she had to be moving, she had to escape, she had to have some space and some time. She needed the distance to be able to think, to be able to process just what in the world was going on in her life. Tired, but pushing she drove. Exhausted really, she felt as if she was running. "Next thing, next thing, next thing." This was the echo of her life. More, better, get it done, not good enough, more time, more energy, try harder, work harder! She must attain perfection and perfection is ruthless. Perfection will chase you down and make you quiver and she couldn't see that she was ...

Did you know the sinking of the Titanic was caused by a mirage? According to a documentary I watched with Allison and my parents recently, the reason why the Titanic struck an iceberg was because of a mirage. We've all seen mirages as we drive down hot highway roads, and apparently they can happen on a dark sea as well. In the documentary, we learned that the Titanic's lookouts could not see the iceberg because the water reflecting off of the night sky made it invisible. Thus, the Titanic struck the iceberg and the rest is history. If the men had seen the iceberg, they would have only seen the small top piece. Visibly, an iceberg is small. But although it seems small at first, we know that an iceberg is massive. The "tip of the iceberg," to use the phrase, is only a small indicator of a greater piece of ice. In the Bible, Jesus is the central figure. We can look at the rest of the story of the Bible as pointing to Jesus. The other players in the Bible are jus...

We sing these lyrics: All unholy and unclean,  I am weighted by my sin;  On thy mercy I rely;  Give me Christ, or else I die  Thou dost freely save the lost;  In Thy grace alone I trust.  With my earnest plea comply;  Give me Christ, or else I die.  Why? The picture of heaven as revealed to the Apostle John and recorded in the Book of Revelation portrays the multitude of God's people worshipping Jesus: "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” ( Revelation 7:9-10 ESV) Every nation represented. All tribes. All peoples. All languages. In verse 10, we see that salvation belongs to the LORD and...

Social media LOVES flattery. We've all seen it and we've all participated in it. We've all seen pretty girls (and guys) post selfies on Facebook or Instagram so that the comments can all say "Gorgeous!" "Wow!" etc. [Side Note: Instagram is not  for selfies according to a wise friend] We've all seen the rambling birthday posts on Facebook that just seem to go a little bit overboard. Relax, buddy, it's the person's birthday. All they did was be born, they don't need 8 billion compliments. We've seen the mentions of celebrities on Twitter, or the comments on their profile pages elsewhere. There are a million more examples of this form of Facebook Flattery out there. Go ahead, scroll your social media, you're bound to come across it. But I want to ask the question: Is flattery just a terrible attempt at quid pro quo? I say something nice and complimentary to you so that you'll say something nice and compliment...