Random Articles
God Our Provider
(Copyright 06-13-2025) by Charles Whitaker (Charlotte, North Carolina) One of God’s names is Yahweh Jireh—the Ever-Living One, our Provider. Our Father supplies all our needs—what we need for our daily living as well as what we need to carry out His work. The story of the building of the Tabernacle of Meeting illustrates how God provides all we need to do His work. Today, this story serves as an encouraging example (I Corinthians 10:6) to us as we actively collaborate with God in building another structure—His church. The Tabernacle of Meeting was an important structure to God—it functioned as a portable Temple where He could dwell while His […]
The Israel of God
(Copyright) by Charles Whitaker (Charlotte, North Carolina) In Galatians 6:16, the apostle Paul refers to the church as “the Israel of God.” Why? Why not “the Judah of God,” “the Ephraim of God,” or “the Galilee of God?” Why did God not inspire Paul to call the church by Israel’s original name, Jacob—”the Jacob of God?” We can learn much from the names God gives people, places, or things because those names reflect the way He perceives them. What can we learn about God’s church by studying the name Paul used for it in Galatians 6? It was God Himself who first uttered the […]
Clouds
(Part One): A Really Special Cloudby Charles Whitaker (Charlotte, North Carolina) “God’s cloud led them on by day when they broke camp and set out.” (Numbers 10:34, The Voice) One of the most nuanced yet telling dichotomies in God’s Word is that of concealment and revelation. Keeping something under one’s hat is the opposite of bringing it out into the open. The gambler who plays close to the vest is not likely to tip his hand. Anyone who is characteristically tight-lipped is not wont to spill the beans. The tension between God’s keeping a secret and sharing it with others mirrors another basic dichotomy, […]
A Basket of Summer Fruit
by Charles Whitaker (Charlotte, North Carolina) “In the Good ‘Ol Summertime,” the local oldie-but-goodie radio station broadcasts Nat King Cole’s song: Give me those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer,Those days of sodas and pretzels and beer.Give me those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer;You’ll wish that summer could always be here. How well these words express the natural man’s response to summer! He feels release, even exuberance, as winter loosens its cold grip, and the land again becomes fruitful. As the days grow longer and warmer, human nature cries, “Let’s make hay while the sun shines” and characteristically turns summer into […]