During a small gathering of women in a weekly Bible study group, I asked a question for each to answer.
“What allows you to share your faith story with others, whether Jesus-followers or not?”
“Grace. God’s grace.” Everyone answered the same around the table.
Doubts creep into my mind as quickly as weeds pop up in my flowerbeds.
I doubt my abilities, faith, feelings, God, and thoughts. Sometimes they are fleeting, but usually they result in anxiety.
When my husband and I surrendered to ministry, our lives became harder than ever before. Everything started breaking, including cars, furniture and appliances…big stuff on a very limited budget.
“What if I can’t have a baby? What do I do with the rest of my life? That’s my purpose in life!” That was my prayer at the altar that day. My husband and I were facing the heartache of infertility.
Only a few times can I say I heard, without a doubt, the inaudible voice of God speaking to my heart. This was one of those times.
What are your greatest fears? It’s not often I’ve feared for my life but several memories remind me I’ve had a few.
Traveling home from Belize with one of my 10 year old twins as we flew through a terrible storm was terrifying. I was not sure we would make it safely back to Houston.
The disappointment, the losses, the failures, the fears, the betrayals, the waiting and waiting. Why? What good is this in the life of a believer??
Have you ever noticed how God speaks in multiple ways when He is trying to get a point across to us? Often when I read scripture and God reveals a new truth, or reminds me of something He previously revealed and I have ignored, I begin to see the same truth in other ways.
Division. It was tearing us apart again.
Are you concerned over division in your country, city, or neighborhood?
Division in the world, although sad, is more understandable.
But what about division in your own home or church?
Maybe even division in your own heart?
At times, I am too hard on myself.
I focus on all my failures. I can make a long list in my mind.
While focusing on the lies, I forget the truth.
Have you read a note to yourself from the past and later… it spoke to you in a new way?
This happens to me sometimes.
As I write to encourage others, months later the same message has a new meaning to me.
Some days it seems everything goes… wrong.
Does this ever happen to you?
No matter what I try, nothing works out right.
Recently on a day like that, Jesus brought this Scripture to my attention:
I quietly shut the door behind me. I needed to be alone… to pray.
My heart was hurting from a difficult conversation.
I needed to process.
What had just happened?
Friends, “churchy” talk is easy; but having the courage to live as a Disciple of Christ requires careful examination of one’s lifestyle.
“Don’t blink,” cautioned the technician at the ophthalmologist’s office, all the while flashing a light directly in my eyes, making it almost impossible not to blink. I could not stop thinking, “Just how much longer will this misery last?”
Psalm 46, possibly written by Hezekiah, is a song about God’s deliverance of His people from Assyria. However, it is actually a timely psalm to read today.
Unusually tired after hosting a three-day family visit, I was frustrated for not having the energy to zoom through my usual Monday chores. And then I began to realize the visits with my grandchildren seem to tire me more than when I was younger—even though it is a “good tired.”
In the understanding of many, we enter the Kingdom of God only when we enter Heaven.
However, the Bible teaches Christ followers that Jesus sent us out to proclaim the kingdom of God in the world NOW.
In some cities it is quite popular to visit graveyards and go on spooky tours. The city of
New Orleans has thousands of tourists that pay to go through their cemeteries to hear
stories of the past, admire the tomb’s architectural elements, and seek the suspense of
getting spooked while there.
It was common in those days to have village rivalry, so Nathanael’s skeptical attitude
toward Jesus would not be a surprising response. Important or famous people did not
come from small villages.
Throughout Jesus' ministry we find Him surrounded by some of his closest friends. One
of his closest friends was Simon Peter. Throughout the gospels we see how Peter was
a witness to many miraculous things Jesus did.
