The Narrow Path

 I just wanted to bring our readers attention to FreeRice.com.  This is a service that allows the user to improve their vocabulary and at the same time donate rice through the United Nations to help stamp out hunger.  When you get a vocabulary word right, the advertiser on that page then donates 20 grains of rice.  Go check them out!

A wall mentioned in the Bible’s Book of Nehemiah and long sought by archaeologists apparently has been found, an Israeli archaeologist says.

A team of archaeologists discovered the wall in Jerusalem’s ancient City of David during a rescue attempt on a tower that was in danger of collapse, said Eilat Mazar, head of the Institute of Archaeology at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem-based research and educational institute, and leader of the dig.

Artifacts including pottery shards and arrowheads found under the tower suggested that both the tower and the nearby wall are from the 5th century B.C., the time of Nehemiah, Mazar said this week. Scholars previously thought the wall dated to the Hasmonean period from about 142 B.C. to 37 B.C.

The findings suggest that the structure was actually part of the same city wall the Bible says Nehemiah rebuilt, Mazar said. The Book of Nehemiah gives a detailed description of construction of the walls, destroyed earlier by the Babylonians.

Read More Israeli Says Elusive Biblical Wall Found

Lately we have had a lot of clients desiring to send newsletters to their customers. We have tried to direct them to good resources on the subject, or help them to understand the caveats of email newsletters and the fine balance it takes between giving their customers what they want and not irritating them.  We really enjoyed this article by Vitamin, so hopefully you will also!

Vitamin Features » Ensuring your HTML emails look great and get delivered

by Max Lucado

May I ask you to look at your hand for a moment? Look at the back, then the palm. Reacquaint yourself with your fingers. Run a thumb over your knuckles.

What if someone were to film a documentary on your hands? What if a producer were to tell your story based on the life of your hands? What would we see? …

Read the rest at The UpWords Weekly Email Devotional

Much is made these days of preserving the “mystery of God.”  Some in the Evangelical community caution against too much knowledge fearing it will reduce Christianity to a collection of propositions and intellectual arguments.

Read the rest at: Stand to Reason Blog: Mystery

I’ve heard a lot of controversy in the way people worship in the last couple of years. The conservative/traditional side likes worship always reverent, while the contemporary side wants to have a more emotional style of worship.

While one side might be badmouthing the other side, I usually give them the scenario of a person winning a million dollars. Some people will sit down, put their hand to their mouth and just sit in shock and possibly cry, while other people will scream and dance. Both of them completely caught up in the moment, both not fully grasping what this now means for them.

Was either reaction, the wrong reaction?

It’s a personal thing, it’s part of who you are, how you react to situations. And you can change, some people might sit in shock one time, while later on in life they begin to have a more outwardly showing of what is going on inside and vice versa. I can’t see either being the wrong reaction, just different. The heart is the same, and we know that God judges the heart. Worship is not from the outward, but from the heart. Who are we to judge the heart?

To the traditional Christians: We have a wonderful example of David, fully caught up in the worship of God, dancing, singing, and making a fool of himself to those around him, yet his heart worshiping God and bubbling forth into his limbs and lungs.

The the contemporary Christians: More wonderful examples as people fall down on their face in reverence of God, worshiping with everything they are, showing that God is fully King, Sovereign over them and they are but a servant to the Most High.

There is a place for each, there is a time for each. Neither is wrong, both are right. We need to remember to worship in reverence and in emotion, fully. We need to come together as Christians and not separate ourselves for that in itself is not worshiping God, but allowing the deceiver to come into our lives and separate ourselves from our brothers and sisters. We were made for community.

I grew up in the country where coyotes would isolate their prey. One would be left alone and then they would pounce and devour their prey since by itself the prey could do nothing. I’ve heard lions do this also and Satan is a roaring lion. He desires and succeeds in doing this to us too. He separates us from each other and then attacks. We must stand together under the banner of God and cause Satan to roar with frustration instead of triumph!

Oh God our God, help us not to be separated from each other, so that the body of Christ can stay whole. The hands helping the feet, the feet helping the hands. So that our feet can get us to where we can help others and once we arrive that our hands can heal. You are an amazing God! You have created us in your image, help that image to be whole and that we reflect you accurately to those around us. Bless us with peace Father, a peace that can not be taken from us no matter what is going on around us, a peace that is confident in you. We ask you to live within us to help us to love our brother unconditionally.

by Max Lucado

Jesus’s word for frustrated workers can be found in the fifth chapter of Luke’s gospel. Peter, Andrew, James, and John made their living catching and selling fish. Like other fishermen, they worked the night shift, when cool water brought the game to the surface. And, like other fishermen, they knew the drudgery of a fishless night.

While Jesus preaches, they clean nets. And as the crowd grows, Christ has an idea…

Read the rest at The UpWords Weekly Email Devotional