Good morning... "Oh Sue, do not beat yourself up," she wrote after yesterday's relatable post, My Stupid Decision. "Paul Tripp writes we are never 'grace graduates' and how blessed we are for that never ending hope." We are never "grace graduates." The phrase captures my curiosity. We never graduate from God's School of Grace. Life continually offers us advanced [...]
Good morning... I made a poor choice and paid the price. On the spectrum of stupid decisions, mine was pretty tame, but gratefully it gave me a small taste of embarrassing shame. My mistake set my mind wondering. How do people get out of bed the morning after a devastating affair is exposed, a preventable accident brings permanent [...]
Good morning... Leading a yoga class on the beach, the instructor said an interesting phrase, "Surrender. Do nothing but allow..." I have never really considered the practical definition of surrender. When I look it up now, I discover these addition phrases. Stop resisting an enemy. Submit to the authority of an opponent. Give into the powerful influence of another. [...]
Good morning... "God sent Jesus to make free persons of us," points out spiritual mentor Henri Nouwen. "He has chosen compassion as the way to freedom. That is a great deal more radical than you might at first imagine. It means that God wanted to liberate us, not by removing suffering from us, but by sharing it with [...]
Good morning... "Get beyond yourselves and protecting your own interests; be sincere, and secure your neighbors’ interests first," urges Philippians 2:4 in the VOICE translation. In verses five through eleven, God's Word continues: In other words, adopt the mind-set of Jesus the Anointed. Live with His attitude in your hearts. Remember: Though He was in the form of God, [...]
Good morning... Watching a news story, I pulled out a blank piece of paper and jotted down four strong words. "Hate." "Hurt." "Hope." "Heal." Coupled together, they form opposite ends of the continuum upon which our daily life teeters. Hate/Hurt..........................Hope/Heal It is important to ask ourselves, moment by moment, "Which magnetic pull is grabbing my full attention?" God’s [...]
Good morning... First Peter 2:23 sticks with me most constantly from this first week of Lenten blog posts. When [Jesus] was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. Many times in our lives stressful storms come our way, and often we cast blame [...]
Good morning... "Why did Jesus send his disciples into the storm?" asked yesterday's dynamic devotional quoting Paul David Tripp. "He did it for the same reasons he sometimes sends you into storms - because he knows that sometimes you need the storm in order to be able to see the glory," came the quick, tidy answer. "For the believer, [...]
Good morning... This Ash Wednesday, we carry over some meaningful morsels of truth expressed beautifully in yesterday's post. "For Jesus, knowing God fully as he was fully known by God, Oneness with God was more than enough. For grace is clearly at work when a person accepts undeserved pain and suffering and does so because he (or she) is [...]
Good morning... "The key passage that I think we have to come to terms with is 1 Peter 2:23," says Pastor John in yesterday's powerful posted podcast. "When [Jesus] was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. And so my question for myself and for my [...]
