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December 3, 2020
How to Have an “Advent”ageous Month The new month ushers in a new season. Advent. Weeks of sparkling lights, festive music, hidden packages, and wafting sweet aromas lead up to the celebration of Christmas. Of all the years in recent history, we need what this season offers. Not just the surface delights that bring momentary happiness. But the greater, underlying truths of advent: hope, peace, love and joy. Who, in this hard year of 2020, does not long for these...
November 5, 2020
Ditching Discouragement Discouragement. Despair. Dejection. Downheartedness. Where blue skies and sunshine reigned, clouds of fog roll in and engulf us. Out of the gray mist morphs an unwelcome funk setting up residence within us; putting to the test the hopes and beliefs we build our faith upon. This condition can last a day, weeks, or even months. Huge discouragements result from soured relationships. We don’t live long before we learn we fail ourselves, we fail others, and others fail us....
July 9, 2020
Christ-followers strongly embrace love because our God is love. John 3:16, the epitome of true love, shows the measure of God’s passion for mankind in the sacrifice of His only Son. No greater love exists. God stands as the author and source of love. We hear a lot about the proof of love being tolerance and acceptance. However, scripture points a different direction. The companion word linked to love, interestingly enough, is obedience. Wait. What? Jesus talks about love and forgiveness...
May 7, 2020
Ever find yourself up against a brick wall? Searching for a door to get to the other side, but finding none. Or perhaps feeling like you’re standing in a thick, dusky fog, needing to make a move, but no idea which way to step. And you pray to God for help. “Lord, I need direction. I need help. I need an answer.” Aaaaaand nothing. We bear our hearts to the Lord and ask friends to pray. And nothing. No direction....
January 23, 2020
One hard in life we all face is the swift passage of time. Spoken with a mixture of surprise, anxiety and lament, the phrase “time goes so fast” echoes through days and decades. We cannot corral enough time to accomplish ”all the things”. What time we have we often hurry along by focusing on some future event or phase of life, while the moment we are in slips by with little notice. We can’t wait to be a teenager. Blink,...
September 26, 2019
At times, during a difficult season or storm, God’s promises are hard to remember, let alone to grasp and hold onto. On an early morning trek around the track, I jogged out from under tree cover and looked up, surprised to see a rainbow. Surprised because it hung in the western sky early in the morning, as opposed to the eastern sky in late afternoon, when most storms roll through leaving the color-filled bow. A dark cloud covered the very...
January 10, 2019
Adversity in our lives can grow us desperate for a touch from God. In moments of certainty that the ground is breaking apart under us and will swallow us whole, we cannot take another breath, let alone another step, without some assurance He is with us. A health crisis. We had not received a “save the date”. No pre-released schedule of events marked the path before us. It snuck up behind us and knocked the wind out of our lungs...
December 13, 2018
As we edge closer to the day set aside to celebrate the coming of Christ, we peek into the manger and wonder, “Who are you, Jesus?” And He answers us. All through the Scripture we are told who He is, but most powerful are the words of Jesus Himself. Today we are pondering a second emphatic statement He made: “I am the bread of life.He who comes to me will never go hungry,And he who believes in me will never...
December 6, 2018
During advent, let’s ponder four emphatic “I am” statements from Jesus. Four things that establish this babe in a manger was set apart from all others born before and after Him. Understanding and embracing these proclamations help us walk through hard things in life. The first “I am” to consider is Jesus declaring, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, But will have the light of life.” John 8:12 What an astounding...