I lift up my hands in prayer – presenting myself wide open and vulnerable before You, God. I trust You.
I lift my hands in awe and amazement and then spread them far out in front of me as I kneel down with my head to the ground. You are holy. The palms of my hands press against the cool earth, a reminder of where I came from, that I’m really dust. How is it that you care about me, God? Continue reading
Someone I dearly love has been wrestling with lies from the enemy and shared more openly with me tonight about it. As I listened I got mad, furious that he would torment her and give her such ideas, ideas to harm herself. I reminded her that he doesn’t care about her and she doesn’t have to listen. She said she needs a miracle. The beautiful thing is that we serve a God who does miracles all the time. Read this and be encouraged:
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(I posted this on my old blog a few years ago – I want to post it again)
Our spiritual enemy wants the opposite of what God wants for each of us. He will use lots of different tactics to try to drag us away and turn from God.
In order to defend yourself or even have a chance at defeating an enemy, you must know about the enemy. Here are a few things you need to remember about our spiritual enemy, the devil: Continue reading
I’m in the middle of my week-long social media fast and so far, so good. I do miss it, miss that community I feel a part of. I realize that it’s a habit for me to tweet a lot because whenever things happen or I have a thought I want to share with someone I reach for my phone thinking, “I should tweet that!” and then I remember that I’m not using twitter right now. I also feel like I don’t know as much of what’s going on in my friends’ and family’s life because I often see on facebook where people are going, what they’re dealing with, and how they feel. In fact, a day or so ago my sister sent me an email (something I’m still using) and said, “Hey! What’s going on? John just put on twitter that 3 churches are interested in him? I need details!” And I replied, “So do I! I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Continue reading
I don’t know what’s ahead tomorrow; don’t even know what’s ahead in a few hours or two minutes from now. But it’s going to be good.
It may be something different from what I plan. It may hurt. It may make me laugh. I might be overjoyed or concerned, scared, relieved, bewildered or surprised but I belong to a good God so it’s going to be good. Good doesn’t necessarily mean “happy” or comfortable or even pleasant. There’s a deeper good that God knows and wants to give.
My God who keeps His promises. My God who loves and loves and loves. We can’t out-give Him. He is good.
Sadly, the hard stuff of life can sometimes cause me to see God as indifferent, angry, or unkind. What if instead I saw Him as He is: a wholly devoted, attentive, compassionate Dad who can relate to how I feel in every moment.
Have you ever bought a gift for someone and you know it’s exactly what they want and waiting until it’s time to give it to them is almost unbearable? You just can’t wait to give it to them because you know how happy they will be and you want to make them happy because you love them. God probably has to restrain Himself from bowling us over with revelations, blessings, and knowledge of outcomes because it’s for our good, because it’s not time yet or we’re not ready to receive what He has for us yet. I think He can hardly wait to help us and show us all that He has planned. I imagine it’s especially hard for Him when He has to remain silent, watching while we cry out, all so that we will search more, grow more, and become stronger.
Sometimes when talking with friends about things I don’t understand we say that when we get to heaven we can ask God about it. Maybe then He’ll finally show me what it was all about or why certain things happened.
You know what? I don’t think I will care at that point! When I see Him face to face – the One who somehow shrunk His vastness down into the tiny, frail body of a human baby and grew up among the limited, common folks He Himself made out of dust, and then actually gave his life up for all of us because of unrelenting love – I think all I will be able to say is “thank you.”
All the stuff that happened here will be wiped from my memory and won’t matter anymore. All that will matter is that it drove me to Jesus and helped me get home.
It’s going to be so good.
“…open your eyes and see—how good God is.
Blessed are you who run to him.” Psalm 34:8 The Message
“You bless all of those who trust you, LORD.” Psalm 40:4 CEV
She stood there for what seemed like an hour, hesitating, looking at the guy at the bottom of the ramp urging her to go for it, then back at me, then down at the skateboard she stood on perched on the edge. I could tell her heart and mind were working at 100 mph trying to decide what to do. She wanted to be a skater and had pretty much mastered the horizontal, flat ground skating. Now she was 
trying to learn to “drop in”: when the skater presses their front foot down on the board and rides down the steep curvy ramp. The idea is to stay on the skateboard of course and keep going once you’re on level ground. She had attempted dropping in on the smaller ramp at least 15 times, each time wiping out and landing flat on her tailbone – the one place with no protective padding. Now she was perched on the big ramp but not so sure. Continue reading
It takes someone outside of me to help me see behaviors and pinpoint thoughts/perceptions that aren’t healthy. Whenever I spend time with my sis, I learn so much. She is very perceptive and wise and is one of those friends for me who speaks truth into my heart and life. I take it from her because I’m secure in her love. She knows me and doesn’t judge me.
Sitting at my kitchen table a few mornings ago, somehow we began talking about connecting to people and trying to fill the need in our hearts to connect with stuff other than intimacy with God. Jodi asked me what I was afraid of. I hadn’t thought I was afraid of anything but as we sat there and I thought about it I realized I am afraid of being alone and lonely. I’m having a hard time watching my old friends from our old church grow more closely together, even though that is wonderful and what’s supposed to happen, because I feel I’m drifting away from them. I’m missing my college girls – and anticipating when my youngest also leaves – and realize they’ve been some of my closest friends all throughout their growing up years and now they are moving on, so to speak. Continue reading
Did you know…
Today is beautiful.
Today I have more than I need; in fact, compared to many I live in luxury.
Today the sun warms my skin, a warm breeze tousles my hair, all under a canopy clear aqua-blue sky.
Today I am content.
Today I get to spend time with my sister from Arizona who I love.
Today my bills are paid and my car is running.
Today I’m healthy and well.
Today John and I are both employed.
Today, like yesterday and every day ahead of me, I have the incredible privilege of enjoying a close relationship with God. He was waiting for me as I opened my eyes this morning – waiting to give me the gift of this day.
Today I’m exploring His gift as it unwinds. I’ll miss beauty, blessings, and even God Himself if I’m all bound up in wondering about days ahead.
Jesus said to live in today…not yesterday and not tomorrow. That’s good because I don’t know what’s coming tomorrow. It’s actually a loving gift He gave us, to just dwell in the day we woke to, to enjoy it, to walk hand in hand through it with him and those around us, to be thankful and at peace.
So, I’m living in this day.
And today is good.
Jesus said, “What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Matthew 6:33-34 The Message
When I surrendered, all my thoughts, dreams, plans, expectations, hopes and even some beliefs fell as if the surface they were resting on was suddenly yanked out from underneath. The ground below was hard and they shattered. So many pieces lay in piles all jumbled up. What a mess! They had seemed so valuable – something to be desired – but now all was broken.
Before I could reach a state of panic or overwhelming sadness, I felt Jesus’ strong hand on my shoulder, silently telling me to just be still. He stepped past me crouching there in my disappointment and scooped up all the fragments and shards in His hands. Then he got up and turned away from me for a while as I nursed my wounds from wayward pieces that had cut me. He worked without speaking. The silence became so complete it almost smothered me as I sat waiting. I didn’t know what He was doing, He seems to enjoy secrecy sometimes. He didn’t even want my help, if you can imagine that. Continue reading
Krissy and I read a great devotional thought this morning written by Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay, in the daily email devotional I get from Relevant Magazine. (I love Relevant by the way.) He related Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of motion to our life of faith in this world. It gave me some great “ponder fodder” or food for thought as I drove to work.
If you took Physics in school, you remember that the first law of motion basically says that an object, once moving, will keep moving unless some outside force encounters or impacts it. Continue reading
Along the Narrow Path 