Got Faith?

Mary Southerland

Today's Truth
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." (Psalm 23:4 NKJV)

Friend to Friend

The greenest grass is always found in the valley. Shepherds and sheep are well acquainted with the fact that both mountains and valleys are an inevitable part of life. Again, the shepherd is the one who has to figure out a way over the mountain and through the valley. If a sheep is injured, the shepherd must carry his sheep and tend to its wounds until they are healed and the sheep is ready to return to the fold. The shepherd's whole world revolves around the safety and comfort of his sheep, even in the deepest valley.

Valleys are a certainty of life. Your job is eliminated. Your husband is having an affair, or your teenage daughter is pregnant. Financial pressure suffocates dreams, or the betrayal of a trusted friend inflicts a wound so deep and painful that you long for that valley of death. Each day is thick with fear, and your heart is filled with disbelief. The valley may suddenly be before you in a time of loneliness or in the shock of a dire medical diagnosis.

Gone So Soon

By Greg Laurie , Christian Post Contributor

"We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace."
- 1 Chronicles 29:15

We make so much of this life, but it comes and goes rather quickly. The Bible tells us, "We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace" (1 Chronicles 29:15). We think far too much of this life and far too little about eternity.

In his book, We Shall See God, Randy Alcorn writes, "Eternal life means enjoying forever the finest moments on Earth the way they were intended. Since in Heaven we will finally experience life at its best, it would be more accurate to call our present existence the beforelife rather than to call what follows the afterlife."

It is like the previews that are shown at the beginning of a movie. I have often found the previews are better than the actual movies they are promoting. Of course, you don't go to a movie to watch the previews. You go to a movie to watch the film itself.