No, there are not a dozen drummers in my living room, nor is there a Shakespearean fantasy opening on my back porch tonight! (Just in case you were wondering.) There is however, a tradition that the Wise Men visited the Child on this day years ago. (The Magi’s gifts gave Read more
When I began to grow grapevines, one of the hardest things to do was to prune them. I understood that pruning was necessary if I wanted grapes and not just vines, but apart from that, I had no idea what I was doing. It was heart-rending to remove so much Read more
R.E.S.P.E.C.T. How I treat other humans is a function of how I view other humans. If I respond to them as annoyances or as servants, co-laborers or competitors, or whether I regard them at all is because of how I see them. The important truth that I must understand is Read more
Know that the LORD, he is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. — Psalms 100:3 Read more
The last few days have included lots of waiting: waiting for canceled flights to be rescheduled, waiting for a place to sit in the crowded concourse where hundreds of others also waited for skies to clear, planes to be emptied and readied for the next wave of passengers, waiting for Read more
The walls were thick and high. The conquest insurmountable. The opposition large and fierce. The defenses intractable. Sound familiar? I could be talking about a strong-willed toddler or teenager, or a persistent sinful thought pattern. I might be talking about a job God has called me to do, about the Read more
Some humans are innately organized…and then there’s me. And my life is full of things that change, shift and move without consulting me. The nerve! My weekly calendar is a large presentation board populated with sticky notes…because they often need to be rearranged. Family emergencies, household disasters, memory failures, car Read more
Following Jesus every day in the everyday is sometimes a glorified housekeeping job… There are enough different uses of the word “house” in Scripture that when, as a New Testament believer, I encounter Old Testament passages about God’s house, I have to ask the Holy Spirit for understanding about what 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
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