If you were in charge of a bank loan department would you loan money to someone to start a restaurant? There is a belief that 90% of restaurant start-ups fail, but apparently this is an urban myth for a study conducted by Cornell University demonstrated that in fact only 26.16% of restaurant start-ups fail in the first year.

Sometimes the greatest barrier to people hearing the good news of Jesus is not their outright rejection of it. It is rather their fascination or preoccupation with outward expressions of God’s power without grasping the truth of which those acts testify. In Lystra Paul interrupted his sermon in order to recognize a man who was dramatically crippled since birth.

By the time Paul and his companions reach Derbe, they are remarkably close to his home town of Tarsus. Perhaps he could have stopped in to visit family and then taken a relatively speedy route back to their home base.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by life circumstances and wondered, “Why is this happening to me?” Recent events have shocked you. Chronic conditions are not resolved. Stress and tension have pressed in on you. The circumstances of life afford us unparalleled opportunities to trust God.

James knows that the greatest temptations we face are often not those trials on the outside; they are actually the inward enticement we feel to do wrong. If we are not wise outer trials quickly lead to temptations on the inside. We entertain the possibility of satisfying a good thing in a bad way.

Isaiah warns that trouble is brewing. The prosperous capital of Samaria – perched high above a fertile valley in Israel’s northern kingdom – will soon “dry up and wilt.” Enemies will march through its streets and topple its walls. Why? Samaria’s leaders are corrupt, and its people have grown deaf to God.

How’s your faith? Are you trembling in the lowlands or triumphing on the highlands? In Psalm 27, David’s faith goes from the mountaintop to the valley, and beyond. His faith isn’t static and neither is ours. Sometimes it soars (v.1-6), sometimes it sinks (v.7-10), and sometimes it’s satisfied (v.11-14).