Good morning... "A couple of years ago, I was in a small group for a year," one subscriber gave me permission to share her personal story. "At the end of our time, the leader gave everyone a Mason jar filled with business card sized pieces of paper folded in half. On each card was a different Bible verse with [...]
Good morning... "Through you I am getting the message to come to God often," wrote one subscriber. I smile as I sense God chuckle, "I have come to you. I am already here!" It reminds me of a quote I read aloud in our Bible study this week. "The difference between the mechanical and relational approach (to prayer) could [...]
Good Morning... As we fix our thoughts on God and trust the LORD to give us perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3), we are strengthened to endure our most excruciating hours. Resonating with God's encouragement to fix and to trust, a subscriber I have never met wrote me after yesterday's post, "Our Peace Depends on Two Short Verbs." She wrote: "Dear [...]
Good morning... You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! (Isaiah 26:3, NLT). With trust in our hearts and God fixed in our thoughts, we are at peace, whatever today brings. Trust and fix. Trust and fix. Our peace depends on two short verbs. You will keep in perfect [...]
Good morning... We wake to the rubble of another 9/11. Wet, windy, weepy. Rubble again. Be lifted by Chris Tomlin's 9/11 music video as God rains mercy on us all. I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1-2, NIV). Today [...]
Good morning... The phone rang around 5:20 am, "Mom, I think you should go back to sharing your complete blog in your morning email rather than forcing us to click 'Read more' to receive the entire message." Our oldest son called to encourage me from Australia, where he is spending his year ministering to college students. With a 14 [...]
Good morning... Words I wrote last winter, pre-programmed again in May, and re-posted again this summer, minister to me now. "The definition of holiness–in a nutshell–means being set apart to purity, to be like God,” says blogger Shana Schutte. “And the result of holiness, of God transforming us to make us more like Him, is outrageous joy, amazing peace, [...]
"I trust that God is at work in me. I feel His presence. I sense God changing me, softening my heart." She continued, "But trusting that God is also at work in other people, that's my biggest challenge." By nature, we want to save and to fix, to make peace and to control. It is hard for us to [...]
Good morning... “Linger” has always been one of my favorite words. Inviting and multifaceted, to linger means to remain in a place longer than expected. To pass time, waiting, in a leisurely way. To persist, although gradually dying, ceasing, disappearing. To stroll, shuffle, stick around. To tarry, trudge, traipse. To dwell, dawdle, dillydally. Linger is slow not fast. Linger [...]
Good morning... Every year I gift words from my school-year blogs to Northside Church, where I am the Women's Ministry Director, and the Creative Arts department creates for our community an online summertime devotional. For June, July, and August my messages are recycled in a new order, given a title, and adorned with beautiful cover art. This year's devotional [...]
