The Rising

I say my greatest desire is to live for him.


But do my days show this? Do my words, my touch, my thoughts reflect this burning in me?

Overcoming Giants

"Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once and possess it; we are well able to conquer it." (Numbers 13:30)

Can you hear the warrior in Caleb? I imagine him ending this sentence with a war-cry, a rebel yell!  He'd seen the same giants, the same fortified cities and high walls as the rest of them. Yet he was completely undaunted by the task that the Lord had placed before them. He was more aware of the presence of the Lord with them than of the opposition. And here, too, is our key.  Sustained awareness of God with us, will keep us from a distorted view of the size and ability of the enemy in the circumstances of our life. Here are a few sure ways to maintain our focus on God and his great love for us and great ability to deliver us:

The Light in the Corners

            Discouragement is a dirty word. It tries hanging around me sometimes, like some stinky sock that got left in some obscure place in the room (remember, I have boys).  You can smell it but can’t quite put your finger on where it’s coming from. Sure you can think back to a moment or event that may have brought it on, sometimes though, you can't – you just know Eeyore came in and took a seat in your kitchen. Just sitting there…clouding up perspective and dimming your thoughts...

Saturday - What A Day!

    The sun beckoned me even before I opened my eyes. Saturday. Thoughts of coffee and toast with cinnamon sugar drove me from my bed. The day stretched out before me. Finally a day with nothing pressing for attention, and even the things that were had been filed away to the back of my mind to handle some other day. Any other day. Just not today. It was Saturday.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

            The boys had some friends over this weekend. All night video game marathons and lots of ice cream were on the menu. House guests always get me evaluating the atmosphere of our home. A place usually inhabited by the same six people living life together day-in and day-out, suddenly joined by a few new faces. What do they feel in our home, what's their impression?  There's no pressure to be any different than we usually are, of course, but I wonder if our interactions are similar to those they experience in their own home, or vastly different?

THE GREAT CALM

            “And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”  Mark 4:37-40 

Howdy Neighbor!

             Anybody here grow up in Sunday School? For many, we remember from those early years the great stories of the Bible. It is filled with amazing accounts of real people in everyday lives who did extraordinary things.  Queen Esther and her rise from obscurity to royalty.   Daniel alone all night in a pit with hungry lions, their mouths held shut by an angel.  Paul and Silas singing praises in the dungeon until the earth shook beneath them and their chains fell off while the prison doors swung wide.   David and Goliath.   So many great, true stories. Our teachers used those stories to teach truths to us in a powerful way.