Lori Hatcher

I didn’t fully understand the depths of grief until the year my family lost two sisters and a brother within eight months. My brother-in-law lost a five-year battle with cancer, my sister died an agonizing death from a toxic clash of prescribed medications, and my sister-in-law died suddenly from a triple brain aneurysm. Before 2010 I had a head knowledge of death, but afterward, I’d been baptized by fire. As one family member eloquently described, “I felt like my body had been cut open and all my happiness pulled out.”

God comforted us through those terrible days in many different ways. Friends made hospital visits and attended funerals. Distant relatives emailed sweet expressions of sympathy. Fellow church members sent cards and casseroles. Our greatest source of comfort, however, was the Bible verses we read in the days surrounding our loved ones’ deaths. Here are 10 verses we found especially meaningful.

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“For when we came into Macedonia, this body of ours had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within” (2 Corinthians 7:5).

The New King James translation of this verse uses the painfully descriptive phrase “hard pressed” to describe Paul’s trials. “We were hard pressed on every side.” The origin of this phrase comes from the practice of squeezing a fruit or vegetable (grapes, olives) to extract its juice.

Some days (weeks, months, seasons, years) I feel hard-pressed. Like life has me between a mortar and pestle and is pounding me into fine dust. I know you can relate.

You sweat and groan and weep and rage and cannot find relief. The intense pressure doesn’t stop. You plead for rescue, yet the vise of life’s circumstances squeezes tighter and tighter until you think you might scream, and sometimes you do.

“Why doesn’t God rescue me?” you cry, and the question echoes back. “Why?”

I believe there are at least nine reasons why God sometimes chooses not to rescue us. If you’re feeling hard-pressed today or know someone who is, I invite you to prayerfully consider these reasons and ask the Lord to show you which might apply to your situation.

A truly beloved Bible verse, Romans 8:28 brings comfort and hope to Christians every day. It’s also one of the most misquoted and misunderstood verses in the Bible.

I was the kid who always asked, “Why?”

“Why do we hang stockings at Christmas?” “Why do we eat turkey at Thanksgiving?” “Why does the Tooth Fairy leave coins for my lost teeth?” Why? Why? Why? Some answers helped me understand the history behind the mysterious actions, while others left me even more perplexed.

Becoming a Christian didn’t make me less inquisitive; if anything, it made me even more curious -- and that’s a good thing. Rather than blindly following tradition or culture, God calls us to base everything we do on biblical principles and spiritual truth.

By asking ‘Why?’ I’ve uncovered ten things Christians like to do that aren’t biblical.

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We’ve all heard them—phrases that sound wise, insightful, and biblical. But are they really?

First Corinthians 10:13 is one of the first verses I memorized as a new believer, and its truth has carried me through many a temptation: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

Notice two important parts of this empowering verse. First, God will never allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. This tells us we can have victory over any temptation we encounter. Nothing is too hard to resist.

Second, God will always provide a way to escape. Joseph is a great example of this. Remember when Potiphar’s wife tried to entice him to sleep with her? “My husband is away, and I’ve ordered all the servants out of the house,” she said. “Come to bed with me. No one will ever know...” I’m sure her offer was mighty tempting. He was young and virile, and she was rich and beautiful. But Joseph knew giving in to his desires would be a sin. Instead of succumbing, he took the “way out” God provided. When Potiphar’s wife caught him by his cloak, “he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house” (Genesis 39:12). Not very dignified, but highly effective.

As long as we’re alive, our sinful nature will tempt us. Notice the wording in the passage above. It doesn’t say, “if you are tempted.” It says, “when you are tempted.” Knowing this, we’d be wise to set up this three-fold defense before we encounter a temptation: First, memorize 1 Corinthians 10:13. Second, look for the way of escape. Third, take it.

Moses was famous long before Charlton Heston raised his profile in the 1956 Cecile B. DeMille movie, The Ten Commandments. But did you know these fascinating tidbits about one of the Bible's most important persons?

Here are 20 things you may not have known about Moses... let us know how these enrich your understanding of his response to God's call to lead Israel out of Egypt!

1. Moses was the first abandoned child mentioned in the Bible.

Moses' godly parents hid him for three months to protect him from the Egyptian edict that said all male Hebrew babies must be killed. When they could no longer hide him, they set him afloat in a basket on the Nile River (Ex. 2:3).

The story of Daniel in the lion’s den was one of the first stories I learned as a child. Right up there with Jonah and the whale and Noah and his ark, the story of Daniel’s brave refusal to stop praying to the God of Israel is cemented in my brain.

It wasn’t until much later, when I read the entire book of Daniel for the first time, that I encountered many other fascinating tidbits about this inspiring Old-Testament hero. Here are a few I find particularly interesting:

Lori Hatcher is a blogger, women’s ministry speaker, and author of the Christian Small Publisher’s 2016 Book of the Year, Hungry for God … Starving for Time, Five-Minute Devotions for Busy Women. A Toastmasters International contest-winning speaker, Lori’s goal is to help busy women connect with God in the craziness of everyday life. She especially loves small children, soft animals, and chocolate. You’ll find her pondering the marvelous and the mundane on her blog, Hungry for God. . . Starving for Time. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter (@lorihatcher2) or Pinterest (Hungry for God).

Prayer is both marvelous and mysterious. The idea of communicating with the Creator of the universe seems almost ludicrous. And certainly presumptuous. Not to mention intimidating.

Why would God want to talk with us? Is there a right and wrong way to pray? Why does God answer some prayers but not others? Does it matter that we only have a little faith?

Thankfully, the Bible gives us insight into the hows and whys of prayer. Since God invites us to talk with him, it’s no surprise he gives us guidelines. I’ve compiled a list of what I consider the ten most important verses on prayer:

Lori Hatcher is a blogger, inspirational speaker, and author of the Christian Small Publisher’s 2016 Book of the Year, Hungry for God … Starving for Time, Five-Minute Devotions for Busy Women. A Toastmasters International contest-winning speaker, Lori’s goal is to help busy women connect with God in the craziness of everyday life. She especially loves small children, soft animals, and chocolate. You’ll find her pondering the marvelous and the mundane on her blog, Hungry for God. . . Starving for Time. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter (@lorihatcher2) or Pinterest (Hungry for God).