When I think of a plan, it might be a blueprint for an addition to my parents’ house, it might be a calendar grid populated with menu ideas, it might be a flow-chart for ministry processes…but these things are all comprehensible, human-brain-sized, linear, and chronologically time-oriented. Recently, I have been 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
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
Counting the hours that I lay in a hospital bed…waiting… Counting the days till a birthday gift massage… Counting the minutes until the absent loved one comes home… Counting the seconds the microwave has to warm up my coffee… There is lots of counting in our lives. Some of it 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
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
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
Following Jesus every day in the everyday, sometimes my times alone with Him are a little too everyday! They can become more like a business transaction than a lovers’ tryst, or worse, a loveless marriage. Hosea chapter 3 paints a heart-breaking picture of one man’s faithful love for a very Read more
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Read more
“Come to Me, all of you who bear heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Following Jesus in the everyday includes the news. Where do I see the feet of Jesus ahead of me on the path that is mine today? What is He inviting me…and you…to do? I Read more