As the okra plants reach the height their genes call for, they start to blossom and put out fruit on secondary branches, lower on the main stem. This makes the hunt for fruit like a Where’s Waldo puzzle. I can’t just reach for the top of the plant to snap Read more…
Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment! James 2:12-13 I ran across this in my reading today. Talk about a puzzle! Judged Read more…
Dear Child, I am sending this so that you know some things for certain. I have always loved you… from the endless un-time before the earth first spun on its axis you have been in my heart. The intricate design according to which you were woven in the mysterious semi-dark Read more…
Last week I wrote about taking hold of our thoughts so that we are in calm, joyful agreement with what God tells us in James 1: that difficulties are what is needed to shape us to be like Jesus. But why does it take hard things to make that happen? Read more…
It has been an almost unendurably hot summer! Many trees in my neighborhood are brown and crispy. Even the heat-loving vegetables in my garden have struggled to produce. It was even too hot for my okra! The temperature has exposed weakness in the care we give the plants that don’t Read more…
One of my friends died. Suddenly. How far is eternity? A breath? A heartbeat? All my days have been written in God’s book since before I was woven in my mother’s womb, all dark and secret. But there’s no expiration date stamped on the bottom of my foot, so I Read more…
Yesterday was a day full of ministry opportunities. It was a day of revelation and insight, confession and restoration, battle and victory. In all this, Jesus is the mighty Victor. Overcomer is His name: He overcame Satan’s plot to destroy God’s glory and usurp His throne; He overcame death through Read more…
My garden…yeah, about that… My Asian yard-long beans are climbing and blooming, but not bearing. My okra is beautiful and growing, but not blooming. The oregano and mint are threatening to take over the planet! Almost the only things out there I can eat are the weeds! The point of Read more…
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 1 John 3:16 …Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. – Psalm 79:2b Following Jesus every day in the everyday means He Read more…
What’s the biggest thing you and God have ever done together? If you are thinking “coming to faith in Christ,” Paul tells us in Ephesians that that’s pretty much all God, with even the faith to believe coming to us a gift. He takes us while we are completely unable Read more…