Just as the physical heart is comprised of four chambers, so the spiritual heart is comprised of four chambers remembered in the acronym, WISE: Will, Intellect, Spirit, and Emotions. To understand how they work, imagine filling out a bracket during the NCAA’s men’s basketball tournament. When you look at the two teams playing each game, […]

Jesus said, “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5 NASB). This is Jewish phraseology for the blessings of God’s kingdom (Psalm 37:11). We find satisfaction, not through our harshness, but through our gentleness because gentleness restores relationships three dimensionally. First, gentleness restores our relationship with God. Jesus said that His […]

Something flawed inside each of us says that we can satisfy our desires by being harsh. Whether at the airline counter or the fast-food line, in the checkout aisle or the exit lane, on the basketball sidelines or on the telephone, we believe that harshness will satisfy our desires. Yet at the same time, harshness […]

Herod’s largest fortress was the Herodian, 45 acres of building constructed on 200 acres of land, the third-largest architectural find in the ancient world. The palace featured four towers, the highest stretching 120 feet into the air, sprawling 55 feet in diameter (a sign of his desire for control). In the end, Herod died out […]