Israel's Inheritance (Ezekiel 48)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          As I wrap up Ezekiel with this last chapter, the forty-eighth, I realize how long and truly hard this was for me to get through. On one hand it got me to truly read His word, and the other to do my best to understand God's plan, not just for Israel, but the world as well. Don't get me wrong, God loves Israel; a great deal. Yet, it seems the way He's loved Israel seems and looks lopsided. On one part it looks like He absolutely and unequivocally loves Israel, and at the same time He's a God who dispenses truth and justice as He sees fit.

Ready or Knot? (Book Review)

By, Benjamin H. Liles

          While I have been married, quite successfully to my wife for the last ten years, I believe everyone can and should benefit from a marital coach. Then comes counselor and director of Marriage Ministry at Watermark Community Church, Scott Kedersha. To be completely honest, my wife and I have managed, even though we've stumbled on the way, to have as best a marriage we have. It's never without its faults. If the question to me was, "How would you and your wife like to be sat face to face with Scott Kedersha?" I'd hands down say, "My wife and I sign up for that!"

Healing Waters (Ezekiel 47)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          I honestly believe God chooses us before all else. Why would He go and create such a beautiful world in which we manage affairs alongside Him, and then create us to share all of it with? Unfortunately, we rebelled against Him in the garden of Eden, and it is why Adam and Eve were expelled for not trusting in their Lord and God who made them. Yet, miraculously, we're told by Paul, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:3-6, New King James). 

Marriage That Works (Book Review)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          Even though, as a married man, I can and will benefit from Chip Ingram's newest book Marriage That Works, it's also for those who are single and waiting for their spouse. When I say this it's because of the fact of how do we maintain God's vision of holiness in our lives. Are we to maintain God's standards and yet fail to live as a holy and pleasing people to Him?

Order of Worship (Ezekiel 46)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          We can best understand what worship is when we look at the gospel record of John, where Jesus has encountered the woman at the well. We read, "So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph...Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water...The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship" (John 4:5, 10, 19, New King James).

Winning the Heart of Your Child (Book Review)

By Benjamin H. Liles

            What can I say about a man who has written well in talking about parenting? I know that I can say that Mike Berry knows what he's talking about as him and his wife, Kristin, have been parents to eight children through adoption. Through their blog Confessions of an Adoptive Parent he has been able to amass a readership in the tens of thousands in helping other parents. Considering I am in my forties along with my wife of ten years we ought to be parents ourselves, but we're unable to have any children, but then again I feel I digress.

Love Where You Live (Book Review)

By, Benjamin H. Liles

          I want to say for Shauna Pilgreen's book Love Where You Live is an intentional book about loving others as God first loved us. It's every page is littered with thought provoking and ground-breaking thoughts that support scripture, such as where Paul says, "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, New King James).

Getting a Handle on Ezekiel

By Benjamin H. Liles

          There are times I get hugely stumped by something written in the Old Testament. For some time now I have done my best to look at and help Ezekiel make sense to us. More often than not we all need a little help in understanding what the text says and how we apply those things we learn. Now more than ever I see that Ezekiel is a deep and thought provoking book. The message God gave to him was to get those people whose hearts were turned away from God to come back to Him.