What do wayward children, difficult coworkers, and emotionally distant relatives have in common? The true simple answer: Each one of these needs our prayers, understanding, and kindness. (But the true simple fact is: we can’t love one of them even one iota without God’s help.) Our freedom cost Christ His life. Doesn’t it make sense that we now follow the call and bring freedom to others? That’s why I invite you to join me in taking the freedom challenge. I promise it’s better than the coca-cola challenge and the ice bucket challenge, and you’ll feel a lot warmer. To be …
He Knows Better
Ask “I LOVE when you ask me questions.” God slips this in my spirit like sweet chocolate; and for a second, I wish my husband would say this too, but oh well. He isn’t God, my first love, and I’m glad. “Asking questions shows you trust Me with answers. It keeps us close.” Father, you’re as refreshing as a glass of ice water. You know I want to be close. “Drink deep of My wisdom. It’s your open invitation.” Lord, I love Your wisdom. May my family and I never be like Eve who saw the dangling fruit as a …
Cumulus Glory
Seeing this wild cloud formation yesterday afternoon reminded me how we’re constantly in a battle between light and darkness. Will we say “yes” to the dark sweeping clouds of sin and let them swoop down and threaten our sky, or will we learn to hate what is evil and cling to what is good? A big white cloud of witnesses watches. Our ever-present Savior eagerly waits to help us deal with enemy darkness in its various changing forms. God gives us the gift of choice. So what will we do? [box] Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come …
God’s Got You Covered
Reach God covered our sin-problem even before He spoke creation into existence and reached His perfect fingers into those dark layers of dirt to design us. Son Even before God shaped Adam and Eve, He fashioned our future with His own flesh and blood. He devised a plan involving His perfect Lamb who would rescue us from our dirty selves and every muddy place we’d ever tread. [box] The lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. Revelation 13:8[/box] Story The most powerful stories involve death, whether it’s the death of a person, the death of a reputation, …
Are You A Morning Person?
I don’t know how you start your day, but on freezing Minnesota mornings, I yank up the bed sheets and relish each minute before my feet hit the floor. My husband groans, stretches, and wedges an arm beneath me. I ignore the drool on his cheek. He’ll figure it out in a second. It strikes me that we’ve only experienced eighteen and a half years of such marital bliss. LOL! Good morning, Lord… And so begins a chorus of prayer I don’t ever want to stop (and not just so I could stay in bed.) Lord, draw Billy and …
Goodbye Fear, Goodbye Yaps
“Fear hangs out right next to whatever it is you’re most called to do. That means the closer you get to your calling, the louder fear sounds. Keep going – fear is a chihuahua that sounds like a Doberman.” — You’re Made for a God-sized Dream My chihuahua is “Yaps” because he never shuts up. Well, I have a few words for ol’ Yaps – if y’all don’t mind the accent. (I just got back from da South and dis one ‘ere kinda stuck wid me.) Yaps, we’re through. It’s ova! Ya had me going fer a while, wid all …
Good Words and Flying Balloons
It was a no good, really bad day, and I couldn’t hide my tears. To make matters worse, my son caught sight of me as he scuttled by. But he held his calm. He did a double take, and flashed a smile. “You’re God’s warrior,” he said. I blinked. Did that really come from his twelve year old mouth? His words found their place. They flickered some kind of light in me. You know how love plus truth equals hope, right? Well, I daydreamed as he skipped off to his room. Then he returned. “Remember, you’re God’s warrior!” he repeated …
Christmas Screams
When the valleys seem deeper, longer than the heights, depths of our mountaintop times, He is here. If we could see Him we would break into shouts of joy. He is here. He is here with His itinerary that makes Satan’s schemes look like child’s play. Satan doesn’t want us to see him, doesn’t want us to sense him, doesn’t want us to “consider it pure joy when we suffer trials of all kinds.” We’re not ignorant of his devices. We know he has a plan with our screaming pain to… reawaken unforgiveness, inflict fear and anxiety, load us with …
Why Read the Bible?
My child, I’m with you, waiting to lighten your day with Truth. Open yourself to freedom, joy, hope, health, & soul rest. Bathe in My pages that spear each test. Lean on Me when you can’t see. I’ll help you over-stand. Soak in grace. I was poured in your place! Truth seeps in the secret places, mending, brightening. I stumbled through wrath to make your path secure. Tiptoe close. Absorb My sweet-somethings in your ear. As the flower turns to the sun, or the dog to his master, so the soul turns to God. – William Temple To him who …
Honest Rest
“When filled with holy truth the mind rest.” Charles Spurgeon I don’t know about you, but my mind doesn’t automatically fill with holy truth.