Today I want to share a miracle in the Bible that I have too often hurried past without stopping to appreciate God and his powerful message. Yes, there may be more exciting stories right before and after it. Yes, there are even bigger feeding miracles in the Bible. But this feeding miracle of the Old testament has a strong and encouraging message for all of us. One day a man arrived from Baal Shalishah. He brought the man of God…
I’ve never felt comfortable writing a Mother’s Day post. Actually, I’ve never written one before. And even this is mostly an unlikely one. I have a wonderful mom (love you!) and I love being a mom. But my heart goes out for anyone who would (have) like(d) to be a mom and isn’t. I don’t feel comfortable boasting about my blessings. (But we are certainly encouraged to count our blessings). The only thing I want to boast about is God’s…
Whose side are you on? You know, there’s no middle ground. Even if we’d like it to be so. Jesus said: “Whoever isn’t with me is against me, and whoever doesn’t gather with me scatters.” (Matthew 12:30, CEB) This verse stopped me this morning. I’m either with Jesus or I am against him. I either gather with Jesus or I scatter. No other alternatives. Jesus or no Jesus. Whose side are you on? God wants it all. God wants obedience….
Life is a journey. With the words of Billy Graham “My home is in Heaven. I’m just traveling through this world”. This life is not everything there is. God is waiting for us to get home. Life is a gift. It’s fragile and it’s precious, and it’s over before we know it. We need to be mindful how we use our time here on earth. But if God is the center of our lives, then everything gets meaning. Then even…
Salvation is readily available for everyone. We don’t need to wait until heaven to experience the presence of God. We are all called to a God-filled life right here, right now. How do we do that? By repenting and asking God into our hearts. By getting back on the altar. Day after day.God’s readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation’s available for everyone! We’re being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how…
Happiness seems to be what the whole world wants. But happiness is based on feelings, luck, and circumstances. Blessedness is something deeper. Blessedness is rooted in God. I bless God every chance I get; my lungs expand with his praise. (Psalm 34:1, MSG) There’s a huge difference between happiness and blessedness. The difference is GOD. God is the source of all the good things in our lives. God is the source of peace in the midst of hardships. God is…
One of the biggest blessings in my everyday, ordinary life is God’s presence. Faith is not an abstract theological construction but an on-going conversation with God. Faith and life are meant to be intertwined. God is with us as we peel potatoes and as we converse with our neighbors. When we pray as we go God is in small details of our lives. Psalm 15 gives us a glimpse what faith in ordinary life could look like. God, who gets…
God gave us different seasons. Not only in the nature but also in our lives, even in his presence in our lives. If we understand different times as seasons we are more willing to embrace them as they come. But do we need seasons? I think we do. The change of a season in our lives or in the nature wakes us up to see that time flies, that everything is not same old, same old forever. It is so…
The way to life – to God! – has been given to us in Jesus. The empty cross is a sign of victory over death and sin and brokenness. We are saved and guided to the way of Life by grace through faith in Jesus. We are not to look for shortcuts to God. There sure are plenty of empty promises floating around: quick answers, easygoing formulas for success and happiness. But those are not directing us to the way…
Over the weekend some of the quotes I tweeted got very enthusiastic responses from the tweeting community. I realized they have a common theme and thought I’d explore this a bit further. Especially when my daily Bible reading seemed to answer the yearnings of these quotes. “Life is too short not to spend it doing what God wants us to do.” (Jack Hyles) Life seems to fly by. The biggest threat seems to be that we don’t get anything done…
