Not long ago as I was scrolling through Pinterest notifications, I noticed a comment critical of the 35,000 Christian sects and denominations. I don’t know if the commenter had the facts right or not but I do know there are plenty of things about which self-proclaimed Christians disagree. You and I can see evidence of…
How is it possible for a group of people to attend the very same event or hear the very same message and share completely different accounts of what they saw or heard? How can something be the truth one day but the exact opposite be cited as truth the next? I have absolutely no patience…
You’ve probably seen the quote before. “Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” ~Ian MacLaren Everyone carries the burden of emotional baggage. Baggage that can so easily turn into fear, anxiety, frustration, anger, or overwhelming sadness. Everyone gets out of bed each morning with a need for enough strength and courage to…
It seems that so many of the people I talk with lately are overwhelmed with feelings of frustration and discouragement. They feel like they’ve been praying for months or longer and their waiting never seems to end. And that’s just addressing the current year’s problems. Many of us have things we’ve prayed about for years…
What do you think of when you hear the words “praise and worship”? Is it something you do on the weekend or the music you sing along to at home or in the car. What if it’s more basic than that? What if praise is simply the expression of worship and worship is… Well, let’s…
Too many lives are being destroyed by the overwhelming power of addiction. Too many families are suffering because of the pain caused by addiction. Addiction is defined as a persistent, compulsive dependence on a behavior or substance. Researchers speak of two different types of addictions: substance addictions (for example, alcoholism, drug abuse, and smoking); process addictions (for example, gambling, spending, shopping eating, and…
It seems like everywhere I look, friends and family . . . even complete strangers are overwhelmed by grief. Covid and chaos have caused us to lose loved ones, jobs, and financial security. Isolation and emotional stress has broken relationships, worsened depression, and increased substance abuse. The list of reasons people are grieving is growing…
I want to stop and celebrate the blessing of friends today. Not our list of Facebook friends with whom we share the edited versions of our stories but the close group of people who know our real stories … those stories we keep hidden away from most of the world. I want to celebrate the…
Terrorism, politics, illness, heartbreak, loss, and pandemics… Sometimes this broken world feels like it’s too much … too painful. Too hard. Then I stop and remember Solomon’s words: History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. Ecclesiastes 1:9 Nothing’s new. It’s all happened before. No, I’m…
What do you do when life is uncertain and you are struggling with feelings of vulnerability? It’s interesting to be living at a time of collective uncertainty. But the truth is … everyone experiences that vulnerable feeling from time to time. I can’t tell you how often I’ve thought about the words spoken by the…
It’s hard, isn’t it? Delving into the unknown. Waiting and wondering. At the moment, it’s hitting us all. People all over the world are watching and listening … uncertain about what the future will bring. It’s really no different than usual. It’s just that this time we have a common subject. But every day, all…
Our grandson loves math. I get it! I love math, too. We were talking about his love for math the other night and he told me it’s his favorite because it is logical and consistent. Then he said, “Words are harder … with language you have to figure out things like there, their, and they’re….
Do you remember being a child and longing for the freedom you believed you’d finally have once you became an adult? Then you grew up and discovered that you enjoyed way more freedom as a child than you have now. There are more demands on your time, more expectations, more work … more everything. Freedom…
Christmas is just days away and as I read through and lift up the prayer requests left on the Blessing Counters Prayer Page, I can’t help but notice how families seem to have two areas of pain and concern that rise to the top … especially at this time of the year. Finances and relationships….
There’s a word we don’t use very often anymore. Behold! Even in the more recent translations of the Bible, the word behold has been replaced with words like … look, see, and watch. But I think beholding something is so much more than simply looking or seeing. We hurry past things we see every day…
I absolutely love John’s Gospel. In fact, I read it multiple times each year. And every time I do, I feel myself being wrapped in God’s love. In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.He existed in the beginning with God.God created everything through Him, and nothing was created…
I’ve spent a lot of time this week thinking about hope. You see, I’d never really stopped to think about the differences between the way secularists and people of faith perceive hope. For the secularist, hope is based solely on the strength of their inner desires and the belief that they will achieve or receive…
The dictionary defines “hope” as… To cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true – as in hope for a promotion or hope for things to go well. To trust. To desire with an expectation of obtaining, accomplishing, or fulfilling. To expect with confidence. So, of course, that made me wonder……
I’m taking my “all used up” feelings to the Lord. I’m taking my circumstances and all used up feelings and laying them at the throne of grace. Then I’m going get away with Jesus to a quiet place and rest with Him.
Culture looks at love as a feeling. But the Bible describes it as so much more than the way we feel. Jesus had some things to say about love … both God’s and ours.
I love praying Scripture. Each morning, I sit with my Bible and journal … writing the verses the Lord uses to speak to my heart. Then I write the prayers those verses inspire. At the bottom of each journal page, I have a section where I list the prayer needs of friends and family as…
