As I read this verse in Ezekiel, I thought, Wait a minute. No one takes a shoot from the top of a tree and plants it. The shoot would surely die! Yet, God declares, On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches (Ezekiel 22:23).
What is your spiritual story? Believer, what would your life be like today without the Lord? Periodically, it’s good to remember our past, so we can cherish our present and eternal state.
As a young wife and mother, I thought I had the perfect blueprint for our family. My intention was to have two children. No more. Within a few years we had two wonderful little boys. When I learned that I was expecting baby number three, I was extremely upset.
In the days before HGTV revealed the intricacies of home decorating, I naively decided to redo the wallpaper in our bathroom myself. Why hire a professional when I could do it, right? Little did I know how tricky it would be to remove the existing paper or how tired I would become before finishing the project.
I sat down to read and turned on the table lamp beside me. As light spread across the table, I saw a fine white powder coated its surface and even the books resting there.
“Hang in there” is an expression of encouragement in today’s world. It’s a way to say, “Don’t give up.” Recently, I needed to apply the hang in there concept to my prayer life.
It was one of those days. You know what I mean. Nothing seemed to be going right. I was irritated that certain situations weren’t progressing as fast as I wanted. How long is this going to take?
I play Solitaire and other card games on my phone to wind down. Some games turn out better for me than others. I can’t win them all, but I’d really like to! My competitive nature compels me to try to win. I discovered a nifty little undo button at the bottom of the screen I can use. If I make a move that doesn’t help me win, I simply undo that move and try a different one. I can undo as many moves as I would like. I can also reset the whole game if it’s going badly.
I heard whimpering from another room. I called my dog, “Buddy, come here!” But he only whined more. I put down what I was working on to check out the situation. I had forgotten to remove the leash from my dog after his morning walk. The leash was caught under a leg of the couch, tethering my little dog to it. Turning the corner, I was greeted by a wagging tail, a wiggling body, little yips, and expectant eyes. I was Buddy’s hope of freedom. I quickly unhooked the leash, setting him free.
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
Do you detect the urgency and excitement in these questions? If someone said that to me, I would want to know more. What information might the person have that I did not? I would definitely listen to what was said next.
I grew up in a small Texas town of less than 2,000 people. My parents took me to church faithfully. I would like to say I listened attentively to the pastor’s every word. Truth be told, my best friend and I had other things vying for our attention. We would pass notes, play tic-tac-toe, and draw funny faces on the missionaries’ pictures on the back of the bulletin each week.
Have I mentioned that I can’t read long passages without my eyes glazing over?
In fact, many times my eyes have glazed right over on just this one verse.
For instance, did you know that our struggle isn’t against people?
I love seashells.
And I love all kinds. Even broken ones.
My husband? Not so much. He only wants to keep the perfect ones.
The Barna Group recently released a new report: Reviving Evangelism, which revealed that almost half of American Christians between the ages of 23 and 38 think it’s wrong to share their faith.
As I dropped my youngest son off at baseball practice, the rain pelted down. And the wind blew tree branches into the roadway.
Probably by now you have seen the cute little smiley faces that come with texts. These are called, emojis. The younger generations communicate all kinds of things with these little pictures. There are emojis that cover the entire spectrum of feelings, and there are even rules that go along with using the right emoji. The intensity of the emotion might be expressed with repeated emojis. Emojis make all the difference to those who use them prolifically to convey just the right feeling or intent to the other person. And how you communicate often depends on the status or depth of the relationship.
If you are not really current in pop culture (or have a teenage girl nearby), you might not even realize that "fleek" is a word. It's slang, but it means, perfect, flawlessly styled, and looking great. Teenage girls commonly describe perfectly styled eyebrows as "on fleek."
My daughter cracks me up with all the things she says. One of those phrases is, wait . . . what? This is what she says every time she misses something or wants something repeated.
