Joel Shelton

The Devil’s Sinkhole

[424 words] In 1983 the residents of a Florida apartment building awoke to a terrifying sight outside their windows. The ground beneath the street in front of their apartment building had literally collapsed, creating a massive depression that Floridians call a sinkhole. Tumbling into the ever-deepening pit were automobiles, sidewalks, and lawn furniture. The apartment…

The Fruit of the Spirit

[462 words] Galatians 5: 22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” This well-known passage commonly inspires us to set a goal of pursuing these individual qualities, and these are wonderful goals to have. However, what many fail…

Emptying the Ocean

[361 words] When I was a young preacher student at International Bible College, now known as Heritage Christian University, I had the great privilege of sitting at the feet of a man by the name of Basil Overton. Brother Overton was in his mid-sixties and had been preaching since he was 14. He had a…

Your Jericho

[426 words] “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days” (Hebrews 11:30). Forty years before, twelve spies were sent on a reconnaissance mission to see what the land of Canaan was like. The spies returned with reports of a land flowing with milk and honey, but a…