Stephen De La Vega

  A mountaintop high. Indescribable. The view. The air. The freedom. Above it all. Breathe in… Exhale…   Now step back down for a moment. Let’s consider the mountain top high of a despicable king who somehow decided to obey God. In our walk through every 20:24 and 20:25 verse in the Bible, we find ourselves in the middle of a 3-part look at our responsibility to God as we consider kings and kingdoms in the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Part 1 was the prior post: I Will Stand for God’s Government . Next time, we will Let God Win Our Battles . Today, we resolve to Follow God through Highs and Lows . Our story is found in 1 Kings 20 . At this point in history, Israel had been a divided nation consisting of a northern kingdom called Israel, and a southern kingdom called Judah. Jerusalem was the capitol city of Judah, and Samara was the capitol city of Israel where King Ahab reigned as its seventh king. He was ungodly – not a role model in any way for the king...

I started writing this post before the killing of George Floyd . We were still grieving Ahmaud Arbery’s senseless murder . We cry, “Enough is enough.” We wonder when this wretched devaluing of life and livelihood will end. And we are justifiably angry. I don't normally mention people or current events in my posts. 'Always relevant' is my aim. But this is critical. It's serious. And it is, indeed, always relevant. I had planned to write about this topic before either of the two murders had occurred, so this is even more awakening for me as a writer. This is what I hold fast to and what I conclude from God’s sacred Word:   Everyone has value. Everyone is somebody. God cares about everyone. We should, too. When we hear about heartless killing, we get angry and we might even rise up and do something about it.   There’s a story about Jesus in John 2 where we imagine Him in a fit of rage. We imagine Him trashing the profiteering exploits of the wicked people who set u...

[This post originally appeared here  with the title:  Wise As Solomon .  I wrote it as a guest blogger for Liz Petruzzi.   Be sure to visit her site  and enjoy her heartfelt blog .] Wisdom was nicely packaged along with a dreamy and delectable fruit dangling from a forbidden tree.   At least, that’s how it seemed for the woman… No, this isn’t the opening lines of a romance novel.   It’s our history.   It’s the framing of an eternity apart from God when you spin it from a crafty serpent’s vantage point.   But the fruit was supposed to be looked upon with reverence and awe toward God, the Creator, by anyone who fears Him. We can read about this fruit in Genesis 2 and 3 and recall the passing of events that determined the fate of humankind.   A universal death sentence, all because someone aspired toward something good (wisdom), but in a way that dismissed a required reverence toward God.   And Adam continued to d...

3 weeks ago I attended my aunt’s memorial service.  We call it a “celebration of life” because of the life she lived on earth and because Aunt Marilyn is alive and well in Heaven.  I know she’s in Heaven, not because I heard her confess Jesus as Savior and Lord of her life.  I never heard her say that.  (In fact, I didn’t know Aunt Marilyn very well because visiting with her was just not a regular thing for me.)  But I know she's in Heaven because I see her legacy – God’s hand on the beautiful children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren who remain on this earth. To illustrate her legacy… A week after Aunt Marilyn’s celebration of life, her 13-year-old great grandson described “true followers of God” as people who are “fully involved [in church], have a good time, and hold on to what they learned for life.” He wrote this for an English assignment. This is fruit of a godly legacy. He continued, “Being Christian means to have full ...