Thanksgiving is more than a holiday -- it's a perspective that recognizes God's goodness in all circumstances. While it doesn't remove suffering, it affirms His presence and love, reminding us to trust and be thankful for His faithfulness today and everyday.
One of the greatest gifts in our life with JESUS Christ is when He opens our eyes to His Word in fresh ways. We discover His plan unfolding through the ages, His salvation by grace through faith, and His unshakable promises. These discoveries often ignite in us a new zeal for truth—and rightly so. But … Continue reading Grace
Whenever we face political turmoil, personal trials, painful tragedies in our lives, we can simply endure them, we can try to escape them, or we can entrust our lives to God through them. The Book of Ruth encourages us to hope in God in hopeless times because our Savior, Redeemer, and Friend, JESUS, is the King of kings.
God welcomes our laments. In fact, nothing is more freeing and healthy in our relationship with Him than voicing how we really feel and knowing He totally understands. Our questions and frustrations don’t frustrate Him. In fact He wrote the book on them. The bulk of what we call the wisdom books of Scripture, Job and Psalms, are laments. The wisdom of God, it seems, is lamenting to God.
Reading thru the Old Testament pentateuch book of Numbers is difficult but not just because of soooo many laws, regulations, and details of ceremonial and personal holiness. Numbers is a tough read because of the conflict and rebellion of good people, God's people, who experienced many miraculous experiences of God's faithfulness (Egyptian plagues, crossing the … Continue reading Numbers
In our modern era of social media, we love to post pics of our family, vacations, the food we ate, parties we went to, the games we played or watched, links to funny videos, and so much more. It's a great way to share a part of our lives with our family and friends. Those … Continue reading Tired (of Social Media)
When did the world get so angry? How did it happen so quickly? As we look ahead to a new year in 2018, we have some serious issues to deal with in the world of relationships － especially relationships in regard to race, religion, and politics. How did we get so full of frustration that the … Continue reading A Mad World
As we gather together this week to celebrate Thanksgiving, we begin the Holiday season that provides significant time with family and friends. For many, however, the extra time with people is not a time of celebration, but of significant stress because of unresolved conflict -- maybe even many years of it. The easy thing, the … Continue reading Resolving Conflict
It has been said that “church fights are the worst fights,” perhaps because they break out among people who profess to believe in unity and love. You name it, Christians fight over it. Sometimes the disagreements are over trivial matters, but often they are serious conflicts from different viewpoints. Many Christians have been so hurt … Continue reading church fights
A few months ago, DeeDee and I got together with some great friends before they moved to the Seattle area. This month is our anniversary, of sorts - the four of us have been friends for 20 years. As we sat and watched our growing kids play together, we reminisced. We had some time to … Continue reading Friends
following Jesus 