Did you ever stop to think that maybe you read too much?” “That’s absurd,” I said with a little laugh. “Nobody can read too much. That’s like saying someone breathes too much.

Our faith often grows stronger when we have to defend our beliefs, the same way that patriotism flowers and blooms when our country is threatened.

Torah says that if you seek Yahweh your God you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and soul.

It’s easy to have faith when we get everything we want from God, everything we pray for. But when we don’t, we have to decide if we want His will or our own. We can’t manipulate God by a display of faith or by our actions. Only idols can be manipulated. God is sovereign, and He will do what He do what He wills, for His purpose. And those purposes are often hidden.

The only way to grow in faith is to put your faith to the test. You must place yourself in His hands and let Him prove himself faithful. Unless you make up your mind to trust Him, you’ll never know that Yahweh is faithful.

Jerusalem’s wall is real, but it’s also symbolic,” he said. “In a way, we destroyed the wall ourselves by relying on idols instead of on God. We destroyed it by desecrating His Sabbaths. By ignoring the laws He gave us, laws that teach us how to live. These ruins are a picture of what we did to our relationship with the Almighty One – we demolished it. Now it’s time to rebuild what our sins have destroyed.

Besides re-arming myself with joy, I need to know the holes in my defenses, the places where I’m vulnerable and where the enemy has successfully attacked me before.

All these troubles you’ve been having aren’t a punishment from God. He wants to use them to draw you closer to himself.

It was easy to rise up in faith and heroism when we faced a clear-cut enemy. Its much harder to resist the enemy of gradualism and assimilation, much harder to maintain a passion for God when we are bogged down in the daily routine of life.

Jesus told us to look at the birds; they don’t worry about the future because our Heavenly Father feeds them. I think that’s why they praise Him.