The stories just seem to come in. The news continues to report of tragedy after tragedy. We know many near us battling some difficult times. Each of may even be in some difficult times where we struggle with quite times, with peace, with just being still. We can easily get frustrated and then we get…
Psalm 23 1The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are…
The word worship is widely misunderstood. Most people who hear the word worship immediately think of some kind of corporate, formal religious activity. Perhaps what comes to mind is a gathering of pilgrims to lay candles at the feet of Buddha; the singing of a hymn with a thousand fellow believers; or a gathering of…
We should be thankful for the people whom God places in our life. We should love them dearly. We should treat them with honor and respect. We should do all we can to maintain the unity and peace of our relationships with them. We should be willing to give to and serve them. We should be open to them as they speak…
Are you experiencing the schizophrenia of having eternity hardwired into your heart but living as if this moment is all there is? It is sad how many people constantly live in the schizophrenic craziness of eternity amnesia. We were created to live in a forever relationship with a forever God forever. We were designed to…
It never works to ask people to do for us what only God can do. It never works to wait for God to do what he has clearly called us to do. Here’s the principle: we can’t look horizontally for what we will get only vertically, and we can’t wait vertically for what we have…
You can gaze over the fence and covet another person’s life or tell yourself that God has blessed you in ways you never could have earned. Envy is not mentioned in either the old or new testaments, yet it is singled out as a moral failing particularly to be avoided by Christians. Envy is a…
Living in this present broken world is designed by God to produce longing, readiness, and hope in Him. It’s not natural for us to think about our lives in this way, but the difficulties we all face in this broken world are not in the way of God’s plan. No, they are part of it.…
Each of our lives are shaped by grief and celebration. This isn’t true only for the grand, significant moments of our lives; there are ways in which every day of our lives are marked by moments of grief and celebration. Daily we are sad, mad, upset, or disappointed by something, and every day we are excited,…
There is nothing that argues more for our desperate need for God’s love and grace than the two greatest commandments: 37You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’…