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…
Who considers that when Jesus washed feet, He washed twelve pairs…not eleven? The cobblestone city streets were likely to be strewn with animal droppings and covered with dusty dirt or clingy mud. Even in sandals, feet sweat. Especially in sandals, they were the most likely limb to be injured and Read more…
John reports (John 13) “the time had come” for Jesus to go to the Father. In this case it was a period of about 50 days. For the last three years Jesus had loved His own…His own disciples, the Twelve; His own people, Israel; His own sheep, any who heard Read more…