I awoke from another night of lost sleep. Our little farmhouse was still, except for my movement toward the coffee pot and the cat eyes watching me. They were tracking my every move, anticipating that I'd soon be headed for the stash of canned salmon. After a long night of waiting, they would each be […]
We have so many choices each day. Some are simple: Do I want salad or a PBJ for lunch? Other decisions sound simple but are really much more complex. For instance... The decision to rest in the gospel...or resist it. To move from wasteland to graceland thinking and living. The decision we make there determines whether we […]
I was a young Christian just beginning to serve the church. I had just finished teaching my preschool Sunday School class when I saw the commotion. I went back inside my room because I knew who this child was and what was going on. I knew that she experienced seizures frequently and that her mother was used to handling them. My co-teacher, […]
Heartbreaking mommy moment #?: "Mommy, I'm a dork." So we have a talk about words. We talk about who we most truly are. How we can believe what God says instead of what our feelings say. In the course of any given week, it is possible for me to hear many self-demeaning statements and other-demeaning statements. At each […]
"I have my forever home! I have been adopted!" I can just imagine what my friend's adopted daughter was thinking on her way to the U.S. after leaving the Ukraine and at least four years of being an orphan. I remember the long years of waiting with my friend...the praying and the crying...the wondering of […]
Advent Joy isn’t shallow or sentimental—it is rooted in the appearing of Christ. When Scripture speaks of Christ being manifested, it means that God has made Himself clearly seen, known, and encountered in order to save. “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation…” — Titus 2:11, ESV The Child in the manger is the […]
Where do you long for Christ’s Peace to enter your story this week? Or have you given up hope for that? Perhaps it would be good for you and me to remember Jesus' words about the kind of peace He gives. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the […]