Good morning... Yesterday morning, tragedy cut short the life of another young man, a young man for whom I love to serve homemade Stromboli. Now, huddled together, we nestle into the nurturing nest God has built for our online community. How do we respond to this special kind of grief, processing the life-changing loss of family and friends [...]
Good morning... Yesterday morning, tragedy severed the life of another young man for whom I love to serve homemade Stromboli. Now, huddled together, we nestle into the nurturing nest God is building within our online community. How do we respond to this special kind of grief, processing the life-changing loss of family and friends ravaged by the effects [...]
Good morning... Stop rushing. Stop "shushing." Stop judging. Stop begrudging. Stop explaining. Stop complaining. Fire goes out without wood, and quarrels disappear when gossip stops (Proverbs 26:20, NLT). Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper— it only leads to harm (Psalm 37:8, NLT). The start of an argument is like a water leak— so stop [...]
Good morning... Yesterday was "Simplify, Sue." Today I sense, "Stop." "Stop." "Let go." "Try less." "Quiet down." LORD, let my words be few as I meditate upon You. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable and pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my [firm, immovable] rock and my Redeemer (Psalm 19:14, [...]
Happy 4th of July... At 5:30 am, I began diligently trying to discern God's morning message. At 8:00 am today, hard-found words zapped away. Frustrated. Exhausted. Angry at this unexplainable error. I took a deep breath. I closed my computer. I walked away, went on with my day. After waiting awhile, I went back to rewrite. Languish. Listen. [...]
Good morning... I woke panicked. Could it be true? I briefly dreamed that my computer was mysteriously downloading thousands, and thousands, and thousands more email addresses for new subscribers, before sending out our morning message, blanketing a growing multitude with God's peace, power, protection. Then suddenly a large scale, mass tragedy struck, and miraculously, together, we were shielded [...]
Good morning... “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?" asks Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30, in the Message translation. "Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I [...]
Good morning... "It’s so interesting, Sue," looking back over June one of you wrote, "when you felt the leading of the Spirit to continue to write during the summer months, I grieved for you. (See our post My Change Of Heart). I grieved the loss of freedom of time and the setting aside of responsibility for you. I [...]
Good morning... While my husband and I were talking about the cartoon from our post yesterday, he said, "It reminds me of a commonly used sermon illustration." He went on to ask, "When it comes to making a bacon and egg breakfast, what is the difference between the chicken and the pig? (.....Drum roll please.....) The chicken makes [...]
Good morning... I chuckled when I saw this cartoon at the bottom of last week's email from my friend Emily Wingfield. I chuckled, and I felt convicted. This cartoon parks in the lane of our shared hardened handicap, the handicap of our old human nature. We look around us and we want change, but we look inside ourselves [...]
