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To me, one of the most interesting people in the Old Testament is Jacob. Here was a cheating, deceiving, conniving, manipulating, supplanting man - an incredible character. Yet God loved this man dearly! In fact, his life is filled with marvelous lessons for us about God's dealings with human nature.

I'd like to pick up Jacob's story just as he's fleeing for his life from his older twin brother, Esau. Jacob had already outwitted Esau twice - and now his brother was full of wrath!

In a famous passage in John 13, Jesus took a towel and a basin and washed the feet of His disciples. He told them:

"If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet" (John 13:14).

Some devout Christians take this verse literally. They have made it their custom to have "foot washing" services. This is commendable — yet, if it remains only a ritual, the true meaning of foot washing has been lost.

God intends for every believer to be in full control of his or her life — through the power and might of the Holy Ghost! The Bible makes it clear that our walk is to be ordered by the Lord. David testified, "Those who trust in the Lord will not be confounded" (see Psalm 22:5).

Your life is not under control, however, if you are being victimized by a spirit of fear, lust, despondency or depression. If you are constantly bombarded with feelings of worthlessness or thoughts of giving up — your life is not under control!

Some time ago a minister called our office, very disturbed. He said he preaches holiness and the crucified life in his church, and he did seem to have a true shepherd's heart. Then he said that some of his church members had attended some kind of special seminar — and they had come home ready to leave his congregation.

They told him, "God has brought us into a new revelation that has changed our lives. We heard things we've never heard before. We thought we were saved before, but now we know we weren't. Everything we believed about the end times was wrong. We have seen new truth.

Paul introduced the possibility of a fall into a satanic setup in his letters to Timothy. He understood the dangers of a satanic trap or snare: "...lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil" (1 Timothy 3:7). But he also gave us a recovery from that satanic trap: "...they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will" (2 Timothy 2:26).

Pride is at the very top of the list of things God hates. "These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren" (Proverbs 6:16-19).

"Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, 'Thus says the Lord, "Did I not indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh’s house? Did I not choose them from all the tribes of Israel to be My priests, to go up to My altar, to burn incense, to carry an ephod before Me; and did I not give to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel?

"There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon..." (Psalm 72:16).

The 72nd Psalm is a prophetic vision of the dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the corn, in the earth, upon the hill. Except the corn fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit (John 12:24).

Almost everywhere I go nowadays, I hear people say, "I wish I could just run away from it all." Then after a sad pause, they add, "But I don't know where to run. I have no place to go. And I guess I'm too chicken."

On the night before his crucifixion, at the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples, “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me” (John 14:19). What an interesting statement for Jesus to make, knowing the disciples wouldn’t grasp it. One of them asked, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” (14:22).