"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24
This was after Jesus's exchange with the rich young ruler whom He told to sell all his possessions. Some have tried to suggest that this proverbial "eye of a needle" was a small door in the city gate. If a merchant or traveler arrived after the gates were closed, they would have to take all the stuff of their camel, and the camel would have to crawl through the gate door on its knees.

This picture of a camel on its knees was supposedly the way the rich man had to be in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. He had to take all of his stuff off, so to speak, and enter through the narrow gate (Matt. 7:13). But there is no evidence that any such "eye of a needle" existed, in form or reference. Jesus was contrasting the largest living thing in Jerusalem, a camel, with the smallest opening, the eye of a needle. More Here...

If we look closely how the media portrays love, we see that the media makes it seem like finding love or keeping love is the one thing that can make a person happy. While some may say, "Oh, boy, she's over analyzing the media," it is true. I think this is where most men and women think they must have someone in life to be happy, mainly because of the warm fuzzy thoughts the media has put in our heads. But while this may give us hope and encouragement in finding love, it can give us disappointment if we don't find the right person right away. We may think our lives are empty because of it.

On another note, maybe love can fill an empty space, because even in The Bible it says that God said that Adam should not be alone so He made Eve to be his partner. Maybe there is a purpose or a destiny that man and woman should mate. So can love fill an empty part of a persons soul? The answer is yes, and no. More Here...

As you are probably aware, the Powerball jackpot has reached a record-breaking $600M.  That's a lot of money!  So it comes as no surprise that a lot of people I know have purchased lottery tickets.

I've never been one to gamble.  It's not that I have something big against it; I just don't think it's a very wise way to spend my money.  And, granted, it's not that big of an investment for a possibly huge return, but I've always believed that God has called me to be a good steward of all His gifts -- big or small.

But some people I know are vehemently opposed to Christians participating in gambling, even the lottery.  They quote verses like 1 Timothy 6:10, which states, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."  Of course, no where in the Bible does it say that wealth is always a bad thing.  Proverbs 10:4 explains that  "diligent hands bring wealth."  It doesn't say wealth is wrong; it just says you should work for it.  More Here...

In response to his complaint, the state first announced it would remove the Bibles pending an investigation.  Then the state attorney general ruled that the state didn't have to remove them because it didn't pay for them and because the state would allow any religious organization to donate literature. The man at the center of this debate has suggested he might take the state up on that offer. 

State-owned cabins aren't the only places where religious literature can be found.  Look in the drawers of many hotel rooms and you'll likely find a copy of Gideon's Bible.  While I'm sure some people don't appreciate it, it seems there's never really been a big uproar over it.  People just tend to, well, shut the drawer. More Here...

There's a paradox in church world.  Churches run on volunteers, but volunteers don't run the church.  While this might seem innocuous at first glance, the implications of how you approach this paradox can make or break your ministries.  For example, although most of the people serving in ministries at church are volunteers, they ultimately don't make the decisions about the areas of the church they serve.  There is probably a paid staff person overseeing that environment making decisions on behalf of the volunteers in that ministry, and those volunteers just have to go along with what that person decides.

This can go really, really well or really, really terribly.  It goes terribly when paid staff make decisions about changes to implement that drastically affect the volunteer experience in a negative way, and it goes terribly when these decisions are made without asking the volunteers how it will affect the work they do.  It goes terribly when, as paid leaders trying to find solutions, we constantly change the way we do things, showing a lack of consistency and making it more difficult for our volunteers to understand their roles.  It goes terribly when we focus on the depth of our volunteer base -- that is, the amount we can get an individual volunteer to do -- rather than the breadth, or the number of people we can get to participate.  A serving team that has depth but no breadth is made up of few people doing many things with little or no margin, leading to burn-out and frustration.

I've been in this situation before.  I'm the kind of person who really loves to serve the church I attend.  I'm not satisfied with sitting in the rows every week; I want to be involved.  A church I attended in college recognized my desire to be a part of ministry and began asking me to serve on various teams in various roles. More Here...