Good morning... The nineteen year old son of a family in our community did not wake up yesterday, the morning after he had routine surgery to remove his appendix. Having a nineteen year old ourselves, I can not imagine the excruciating pain of his parents. Our seventeen year old son goes to school with the grieving brother and [...]
Good morning... The word "sabbath" in Hebrew means rest, cessation, to cease from labor. We are told in Genesis 2:2-3 (AMP) And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested (ceased) on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it [as [...]
Good morning... Another Mary has come into my life this holiday season. A subscriber wrote: "Sue, your readers may enjoy 'Making the House Ready for the Lord' by Mary Oliver. It's a favorite of my poetry group at St. Anne's Terrace." So I took his advice and I checked out this poem, written in 2006, by this new-to-me Mary, [...]
Good morning... At church on Sunday, we sang one of my favorite Christmas songs. Pregnant. Powerful. Provocative. How could Mary know that Jesus would enter her small life and change everything for everyone? Instead of reading written words this morning, why not lean back, listen in, and let God touch you through the gift of song. Mary said: [...]
Good morning... The day she left a wrapped gift on my doorstep, I could not wait to rush home to feel with my fingers this fresh fractal of God from my friend Lisa West. Lisa had diligently worked for years preparing to self-publish her book Fear Not! The True Story of a Cancer Survivor Who Was Healed and [...]
Good morning... For our opening devotional, we read out loud a picture book entitled If Jesus Came To My House. It was such a delight, sparking sweet discussion, so with you I now share as we prepare to welcome Jesus into our homes. Envisioning yourself as an excited child, enjoy these words in silence or read them aloud [...]
Good morning... "LORD!" he began our gathering reciting words from Christian mystic Evelyn Underhill. "Give me courage and love to open the door and contain You to enter, whatever the disguise You come in, enter before I fully recognize my guest." "Come in!" he whispered aloud. "Enter my small life." "Lay Your sacred hands on all the common [...]
Good morning... Before the first Christmas morn, Jesus thrived in the wholeness of heaven. Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, [...]
Good morning... I love this photo of a journal I found secondhand at Goodwill. A baby resting in the hands of a father, with words written in a foreign language. The language of letting go feels foreign to us. "Why? How? What will happen?" Our human nature demands, "Cling. Covet more. Control everything," while the Holy Spirit whispers, [...]
Good morning... "I love reading your daily blog messages," one subscriber writes. "So many of them resonate with how I am thinking and feeling." "As both you and your readers commented, so many of our hurt feelings are due to how we interpret comments of others," she observes. "Our interpretations highlight our insecurities and expose our false sources [...]
