Good morning... Gravity says, "What goes up, must come down." Planted bulbs promises, "What goes down must come up." A wise father encourages, "Plant rapid-rising radishes with your slow-growing carrots so, seeing green growth, you will not give up hope." And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will [...]
Good morning... "The more we let God take over, the more truly ourselves we become - because He made us," says C.S. Lewis. "He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first [...]
Good morning... All week our TVs have afforded us front row seats for the forecasted devastation of Hurricane Florence. Experts have mapped out the mayhem, predicting the path of this strong-willed storm. What will we see when we turn on the news today? How many people over the coming hours will privately pray? "Save me, O God, for the waters [...]
Good morning... Like morning manna falling for the first followers, God rains down the nourishment we each need for this day. When the dew evaporated, a flaky substance as fine as frost blanketed the ground. The Israelites were puzzled when they saw it. “What is it?” they asked each other. They had no idea what it was (Exodus 16:14-15a, [...]
Good morning... Have you ever read the following Bible story? Until yesterday, I had not. Listen with me to this incredible account, and let's ponder together what God is saying to us today. ...Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him. A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the [...]
Good morning... "An important aspect of living through change and transition is the ability to take the longer view," I read aloud these words to my class. "A fly walking across a work of art such as the Mona Lisa would have absolutely no chance of making sense of what was beneath its feet. Even we, who think we [...]
Good morning... On the other end of the phone, her voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard to me. Uptight. High-churchy. A bull-in-a-china-shop talker. I must admit, I turned down the volume on my listening ears, saying to myself, "We are SO DIFFERENT, complete opposites." When it was my turn to share some thoughts, I talked about locking eyes [...]
Good morning... I looked out my window and I saw eyes staring back at me. In the middle of the day from three feet away, dark eyes locked with mine. Eyes, no neck, and perfectly quaffed feathers, an eighteen inch owl was perched on my porch. We looked at each other for a very long time. Motionless. Peaceful. Soul [...]
Good morning... Chaos. We hate the word. We hate the experience. We hate her synonyms. Disarray. Jumble. Turmoil. We love her antonyms. Order. Peace. Calm. Yet one line from one book has stayed with me for twenty five years. "Identity is born out of chaos," penned Sue Bender in her 1991 book, Plain and Simple. What does Bender mean? [...]
Good morning... How fun it is for my fingertips to listen for the LORD's movement in the early morning hours. As hurricane Hermine exposes the vulnerability of Florida's Gulf Coast, God's winds now blow us back to the start of it all. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, [...]
