Old Paths Journal

11/23/2025

Hard times will either make your heart soft so God can be glorified in your life, or they will harden you and make you bitter

11/23/2025

The love of God for His own is truly amazing. Job said, "thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet." In other words, God made me unique. Think about the print of the heel. There is no fingerprint or footprint alike. It was God who chose to put a footprint on the bottom of our feet. Not only am I unique with a footprint, but He knows the hairs of my head. Every time a hair falls from my head, He knows how many hairs I have left on my head. The Scriptures teach that God is the one who created me in the womb. Before I ever breathes the air of this earth, God's hands touched my life life in the womb of my mother.
Now, why would God make us so unique that He would give us a footprint, know the hairs of our head, and create us in the womb of our mama? The answer is found in Job 23:10, "But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." God did all of this because He wanted us to know that He knows the path that we are taking today. He knows what you face today no matter how difficult it may be. God sees the footprints of your feet and where they are taking you, and He has been with you all the way. He knoweth with the way that we take.
Oh my friend, the care and love of God that He knows every footsteps that we take. Let this be a simple reminder that you are not alone in life. The world may forsake you, your family may turn on you, your friends may be nowhere to be found, but you can always be assured that God is with you every step that you take. When you begin to forget this, just look at the bottom of your foot, and look at that footprint, or look in the sink where a hair has fallen out, and remember that God knows your footprint and He knows the hair that has fallen from your head, and a God that knows this knows everything that is going on in your life, and He is there with you to help you make it through life with Him.

11/22/2025

The four destructive attitudes that will destroy the best of people

Moab’s attitude had more to do with its destruction than anything else. Moab’s attitudes led to it embracing that it was indestructible, but God showed it otherwise. Many organizations, churches, and individuals have embraced the same attitudes

11/22/2025

God's grace is what gives us joy while enduring great trials of affliction

11/22/2025

Job's spirit is an amazing one in that it did not matter what happened to him in life, he never said bad things about the LORD, nor did he turn away from the LORD. In Job 1, he had just lost all of his children to death, and yet his perspective toward God was that "the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
My friend Job's perspective on hard times is truly the perspective a good Christian will have when they face things that go against them. Too many believers complain, gripe, and have a bad attitude when they don't like what has happened to them; they then wonder why their walk with God's struggles. Until you can accept adverse things happening to you, and until you can accept that you may not get what you think you ought to get and still keep a good attitude towards the LORD, you will never grow to great heights and do great things for God.
When it comes to serving God, you are going to find that there will be many times you will lose in life, but your perspective must be that the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away, and that His name is to be blessed. How do you face trials when they come your way? Do you complain and gripe about not getting what you think you should get? Do you complain and gripe about the bad things of life? Do you have a bad attitude when you feel like everything is against you? The only way you will get the right perspective that Job had toward life and toward what you have is that you must die to self to live for God. If you make serving God, your life, it will not matter what happens to you, what you will do is you will realize that the LORD is right, and He is to be blessed whether he gives or takes from you.

11/21/2025

Learn five things about what God means when He says to live peaceably with all men

Many think getting along with everyone is a badge of honor, but God’s Word makes it clear it is not possible. If you love truth and right, you cannot get along with everyone. It does not mean that you don't try to get along with everyone, but some people just won’t get along with

11/21/2025

When you are building something great, many people will say bad things about you because of their laziness and jealousy

11/21/2025

When Artaxerxes the king saw Nehemiah's countenance was different than normal, he asked, "Why is thy countenance sad?" You see, Nehemiah had not been sad in the presence of the king before, but this one day his countenance was different than before, and it grabbed the attention of the king.
Your countenance does matter. Your countenance are the expressions of your face, the look of your face, or the appearance of your face. In other words, people often judge us by our countenance. You can say that it is wrong for people to judge you by your countenance, but your face tells the story of who you are and what is going on in your heart. If you don't want people to misjudge who you are, then you would be wise to make sure that your countenance portrays what you want to be.
The word countenance stems from a phrase, the way one contains oneself. In other words, your countenance is how you package yourself. Your countenance is to be a self-controlled behavior that packages yourself in such a way for others to see who you really are.
My friend, it is time that believers understand that the way our countenance is displayed does shine a light, whether good or bad, on the Christian walk. Sadly, too many people walk around looking grumpy and complaining, and their countenance displays the Christian life as a miserable life. What we ought to do is have a countenance that portrays happiness and joy, for that is what the Christian life is to be. You can have a joyful and happy countenance if you choose to have the self-control to package yourself in such a way that people can see a smile on your face and the joy of the Christian life portrayed in your countenance. You can sit with a scowl on your face to show everybody how mad you are, or you can sit with the joy of the Lord in your soul portrayed on your face. You will do more for God by having a good countenance than you ever will by having a bad one.
Stop being the grump and portraying the Christian walk as a horrible life, and be the one with the joyful countenance that portrays the Christian life as a worthy life to live because it is a joyful life portrayed in your countenance.

11/21/2025

While out following up on my Sunday school class this evening, I met Juan, the brother of one of my members. I was able to talk to him and help him with a problem in his life, but when I asked him about Heaven, he wasn't sure he was able to go. After sharing the Gospel with him, he accepted Christ as his Saviour and settled his eternity in Heaven. 

11/20/2025

Learn the four attributes that people have who exhibit history-making faith

The faith these people had made history. They never knew their faith would not only be spoken of throughout the whole world, but also throughout history. We look back today at a church that had great faith, such a great faith that

11/20/2025

You can be guaranteed that Satan will not sit idly by when God is doing a work in a life or any church

11/20/2025

One of the great problems of the church of Corinth were the contentions that were among them. This church had gotten its focus on themselves and on what others were doing to them. Sadly, these contentions caused division in this church and hurt its ability to get the Gospel out.
Paul's recommendation to remove the contention from the church was to get focused on getting the Gospel of Christ out to a lost world. Paul understood that if the church got focused on getting the Gospel out, that the cause of the contention would cease.
Several years ago, I led a tour group for a Bible college, and for 10 weeks we traveled inside of a 15 passenger van. After a couple of weeks inside of that van, I found that the students who were traveling with me started having their little problems with each other. Every time I noticed contention among this tour group, I stopped and took them soul winning. What was amazing to me was after the time of soul winning, the contention that once was causing a division with this tour group was no longer there. We did not have to talk about the contention to resolve it, all we did was go soul winning, and it resolved the contention.
My friend, whatever is the problem of your contention with someone in your church or something with your church can be resolved. If you get your focus off of reaching the lost for Christ and turn the focus to yourself, it will result in contention. I don't care how you justify the your source of contention, the contention you have is a result of having a wrong focus. When your feelings are hurt or you feel like you have been mistreated, the reason you feel this way is because you are focused on you. Contention can easily be resolved in any church if, when the contention starts, we get refocused on the Gospel by going out and reaching the lost for Jesus Christ. When you get focused on reaching the lost, you won't have time to look at yourself and what others are doing to you or what the church is doing to you because you are so focused on reaching the lost that your problems will seem very small. Let's be at people focused on the Gospel and getting it to the lost world, and we will never be the source of a contention with others or in our church.