Bible Reading

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1, KJV) If you have ever cried out to God about what is going on in your life, in the world, and the struggles you are having, you can identify with David in Psalm 109. He lets out all the stops in his complaints as he lays it out before God. He tells God about the people who have lied about him and hated him, those who have returned evil for good. He talks about the people who have misused the poor

Sometimes God's word provides us with a list of things to bring focus and joy to our day.

As I read in the sixth chapter of Hebrews this morning, I read about hope. Hope is in scarce supply in our world today. Not only is it in scarce supply, but we have trouble accurately defining it. When most people talk about hope, the concept seems elusive and hard to grasp, something that exists beyond them – a “pie in the sky” sort of dream. We “hope” we win the lottery. We “hope” we get to Heaven. The whole idea is vague and, honestly, a little frustrating. The hope th

Living by Faith – a common Christian saying. We hear it often. We say it often – “I’m living by faith.” What do we mean when we say those words? I would venture to say that those words are powerful and difficult. I spent some time in Hebrews, chapter eleven as I thought about living by faith. Hebrews 11:1 reads “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.” In other words, faith is not some wishy-washy feeling. It is substantial. It is

I stepped, I slipped, and I fell flat on my back as I attempted to water the plants in our rock garden. On my way down, I bounced off the side of the house. My biggest worry was my glasses, but they didn’t break. Go figure. Lying there, I could hear the thudding steps of my husband as he came running to my rescue from across the yard. Fortunately, I only suffered a bruised hip and a small knot on my head. Still, I was thankful to have his strong hands to help as I maneuver

In my lifetime, I have heard people say a lot of things about God.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ changed the course of history and made forgiveness of sin possible.

"Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8, KJV). God tells us in his word that he does not change. We repeat this and teach this, but as we parse scripture and divide testaments, I think we sometimes forget the reality of this astounding truth. We see the Old Testament God and overlook that he is the one who came to us in the New Testament. We read of Moses meeting God on Mount Sinai without remembering that Jesus stood on the Mount of Transfigu

Pain. Excruciating pain! That is what I felt when the heavy metal door closed on my finger. That finger hurt for weeks. I protected it and nursed it, and it seemed to be healing. I no longer wore a bandage because it did not bleed at the slightest touch. I could go for hours without any thought of the unfortunate incident….unless I happened to bump it. Then immediately, the pain would flare like no healing had occurred. The finger looked better, but it was not well.

On Sunday, we read Matthew 16:24 – “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” On Monday, I watched a movie about settlers heading west who had to leave behind their beloved possessions to make the journey. In it I saw a vivid illustration of hard choices and dying to self as people turned from the life they knew to become pioneers – pilgrims – and move toward a better land. They cried an

There are times in this life when I am dry and thirsty – not for a Coke or water, but for God. I just want to be close to Him. I long for His presence in this world. When I opened my Bible to Psalm 68 this morning, I totally identified with David’s cry: “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is:” (Psalm 68:1, KJV) This land is dry and there is no water in this wor

Our newest hen in the chicken coop looks like she just came out of the dryer and forgot to brush her feathers. Such a fluffy white thing, not fully grown, she fits her name, “Fluffy”, that our granddaughter gave her. Fluffy came to us with a friend, a *keet, with whom she had bonded, but unfortunately the keet died shortly after coming to live with us leaving young Fluffy alone. As the youngest and smallest of the chickens, Fluffy became henpecked. We joke about this amon

How do you live if you are not afraid of dying? In Hebrews 10:38, the author quotes a line from Habakkuk 2:4, “The just shall live by faith.” We have heard that verse before, probably quoted many times. We flick it off our tongue from memory, but do we really think about what it means? Beginning in that verse, we see an interesting sequence in the book of Hebrews. First, the statement. Then, in chapter eleven we see example after example of people who lived by faith , not

“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14, KJV). When a chapter begins with a death, you get an inkling that you may get additional bad news in that story. The twentieth chapter of Numbers begins with the death of Miriam, Moses’ and Aaron’s sister, and it goes downhill from there. The children of Israel are well into the wilderness of Zin at this point. The

Not long ago, when we were trying to avoid all the gunk going around, we ordered some tonic that was supposed to help build our immune system. It is full of good stuff that supports health and well-being, and even though it didn’t taste the best, we took it each day. I think it helped. I’m sure it didn’t hurt. Some days, I feel like my spiritual system needs some immunity from the rhetoric that is shouted from the media that surrounds me. Some days, I need to fill up on wha

Everywhere Jesus went He touched people. As I read through the ninth chapter of Matthew, I kept a list of his encounters. He got off the ship and was immediately met with a people bringing him a paralyzed man. He forgave the man and then healed the man. He left and passed Matthew collecting taxes and called him to follow. Along the way He debated with the Pharisees who seemed to swarm around Him like mosquitoes. They didn’t stop Him, but they were always there biting

The second chapter of Mark relates a story that has always challenged me.

If I could choose one word for this new year, it would be season. My life has seen many seasons. Seasons of childhood and growing. Seasons of new love and building a home. There have been seasons of children’s laughter and seasons of children’s sickness. Seasons of births and times when we have said goodbye to loved ones. In our home, we had the season of boat building and the season of shed building. We had the season where we lived in an RV and the times when we seemed to m

“Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits” (Psalm 103:1 – 2, KJV) Someone asked me this week, “What does it mean to bless the Lord? How can we bless God?” That’s a really good question, and […]

Paul lived in troubled times. During his time in Ephesus, Nero, a wicked tyrant, was the emperor of Rome. Jewish leaders sought to persecute Jews who turned to the Christian faith, and paganism was rampant. I don’t know if there was a right and a left, but there was certainly a right and a wrong […]