Do you find it hard to resist the enemy? Have you ever noticed how he seems to attack the areas where God is working and helping you grow? I recently reread The Jesus Creed, by Scot McKnight. His challenge to begin and end each day with the Shema, the sacred prayer and ultimate declaration of…
Do you struggle to make the most of today because thoughts about tomorrow keep getting in the way? When our daughter was a little girl, she struggled to understand the concept of time and the difference between today and tomorrow. For example, if we told her… “We’re going to __________ tomorrow.” Like most littles, she’d…
What do you do when you’re frustrated and need more patience? I’ve found a challenge that I believe will help us all. Norman Vincent Peale wrote… “Change your thoughts, and you change your world.” I’m not sure I completely agree with him, but I do believe that changing our thoughts can adjust our attitudes, and…
The alarm goes off, and you can’t believe it’s morning already. You spent a restless night thinking about yesterday’s challenges, and today doesn’t look like it’s going to be much better. You feel overwhelmed, unfit, and you need extra strength. I don’t believe I’ve had a morning lately when I haven’t asked the Lord to…
What if I told you it’s time to stop hiding? My “Gram” used to call it “putting her face on.”. Concealer, foundation, blush, shadow, eyeliner, mascara, and lip gloss. Makeup. I refuse to leave the house without it. I even wore mascara into surgery once because I couldn’t face anyone, even my surgeons, barefaced. I know,…
Is it hard for you to surrender your painful memories? A photo. A smell. A melody. Almost anything can spark a memory and its corresponding emotion. We each carry around a sack full of emotional memories, and the truth is, our memories have the power to make us smile or bring us to tears. Everyone…
As you might imagine, I spend a lot of time thinking about words. And I’ve been thinking about the importance of having strong and healthy conversations if we want to have strong and healthy relationships. The words we choose can too often erode the edges of our friendships and families … until there’s little to nothing…
Have you started celebrating America 250? It’s a blessing to live in a nation that was founded on the following… We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness….
On a scale of 1 to 10 – If 1 is proud (completely self-focused) and 10 is humble (completely God and others focused), where would you fall? Proud 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10…
The dictionary defines sin as deliberate disobedience to the known will of God. However, that definition only provides a partial truth. If we believe that only deliberate disobedience is sin, it’s easy for us to think of ourselves as being pretty good people. We can start patting ourselves on the back, claiming that we are…
Jesus told His followers to shine the light within them… “You are the light of the world.” “If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.” Matthew 5:14a and Luke 11:36 (NKJV) I’ll be honest, I don’t always…
Our human minds cannot fully comprehend the truth about Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, this side of heaven. He is Almighty God. Creator. King. Alpha and Omega. Good Shepherd. Lion of Judah. Lord of All. Savior. I AM. He is the Word who became flesh in the body of a teenage girl—born…
Think about it. You were created for this location and moment in time. God chose to design someone with your unique personality, gifts, and abilities to accomplish His purposes in this generation. It’s easy for us to feel insignificant and unimportant, but the truth is each of us is dearly loved and precious to God….
Some say that when you learn life lessons the hard way, they leave a lasting impression. I suppose that’s true. There is something about lessons learned through pain that leaves life-changing scars. Even as a child, I tried to avoid learning hard lessons and being someone who desperately wanted to avoid challenging consequences… I listened to…
We all have personal goals. Maybe yours include… Those are just some of the possibilities. So, pause for just a couple of moments and list the personal goals you’d like to accomplish. We need to know what they are if we’re ever going to achieve them. Now, let’s consider some wise advice from William Arthur…
Some churches focus their attention on the power of the Holy Spirit, and others barely mention Him at all. It’s easy for most of us to talk about God the Father and Jesus, the Son and our Savior, but it can be harder for us to express what we understand about the Holy Spirit. God’s…
I want to tell you about a season of my life when God taught me the truth about having no other gods in my life… You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Psalm 86:15 (ESV) I’m overwhelmed by God’s patient love for countless…
Do you find it awkward or easy to share your faith? Do you know someone who expresses their “Christianity” through judgments, accusations, rules, and arguments? Christians who consistently “look like they were baptized in pickle juice” rarely make the people around them want to join the family of faith. But, on the other hand, do you know someone, or…
Here’s a story about one of Rev’s adventures and the angel God used to help him finish well… To make sure I could tell it well, I looked through an old memory box and found a letter and a press article from that time. For the 50th Anniversary of the Lutheran Hour Broadcast, Rev ran/jogged/walked…
Without wisdom, life is often marked by a series of foolish choices and consequences. You and I need wisdom! Ideally, it would be nice if everyone could be wise. I’ve always understood wisdom to be “knowing what to do and doing it,” based on this dictionary definition… Wisdom is defined as knowing the right thing…
You’ve read the self-help books and done everything you can to have the marriage, family, career, and extended relationships that match the perfect life portraits you read about online. My family might tell you that I used to read the Bible like a self-help book. And in some ways, it is, but it is so…
