Lest you think that my life of following Jesus every day in the everyday is somehow floating blissfully over a verdant landscape flowing with milk and honey, it’s time for more full disclosure. Sometimes, my relationship with God looks more like a slugfest. On Sunday Pastor Adam gave up stepping Read more…
I woke this morning with unanticipated pain. In a fallen world like ours, pain is to be expected: It came with the first act of disobedience. It is a gift: It warns us that something is amiss. It is an opportunity: It invites us to explore our hearts. My first Read more…
The reduced number of social interactions lately has provided me with some extra time to spend sprucing up the yard and garden, unearthing some buried paving stones along with Bermuda grass stems and rhizomes. This has netted some interesting bird-watching opportunities. From the window over the desk in our “library,” Read more…
We have been blessed with a house on a good-sized lot, and since the first year we lived here, I have had a vegetable garden and some fruit-bearing plants. Fruitful? Indeed! Beautiful? Hmmm…maybe not so much. For a while. I have been asking God to give me what I needed Read more…
Apart from our standing with God through Jesus Christ, our future is always uncertain. These days that’s a little more apparent than usual. The financial world, governments, corporations, neighborhoods are all shaking in the face of an adversary too tiny to be seen with even a powerful microscope! Fear has Read more…
Caution tape surrounds my house today, and there are the sounds of drills, hammers and work boots on my roof. After what seems like too long a time, our solar panels are undergoing the process of restoration. For the last few years, they have faithfully converted our abundant sunshine into Read more…
I love Psalm 107. It’s just so…comforting, I guess. It starts with the command to express thanks to God for His enduring faithfulness. What comes next are four scenarios of people in trouble: –trouble because of what God is doing to bring them out of exile, –trouble because their rebellion Read more…
When last we saw our heroine…at least our protagonist…she was on her way, coffee in hand, to her lovely, personal sanctuary… Well, ahem…The only personal sanctuary in my house at 5:30 a.m. is the one God is building for Himself in my heart! This time of year it is a 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 brethren. –I John 3:16 It was a bright, chilly morning near the base of Cat Peaks in Usery Park. Fifteen or so of us had made our Read more…
O holy Child of Bethlehem, Descend to us, we pray; Cast out our sin and enter in, Be born in us today. Jesus came to show us the Father. Everything true about Jesus is true about the Father. To have Jesus born in us…means we are never far from His Read more…