Wouldn’t it be nice if “regular business hours” coincided with your routine? I usually wake up very early, usually between 3:00 AM and 6:00 AM. There is so much I could get done, but the rest of the world, at least my little part of it, is fast asleep. No one else in my home is awake and so that only leaves me one person to talk to, God. God doesn’t have set times that we can talk to Him,…
Have you ever wanted to capture a silly moment with your children? Have you tired to get the perfect picture of an amazing sunset? I have. My children are doing something funny and I run to get my camera. By the time I get my camera ready, the moment is gone. Instead of just stopping and enjoying the moment, I missed it. I didn’t just miss it with my camera, I missed it from my heart and mind. God has…
There is the saying that you shouldn’t and can’t judge another until you have walked a mile in their shoes. While I agree, there are times when we can see the journey they have had by their shoes. We can assume how difficult their life may have been. I work in a grocery store in SW Florida. A couple of days ago a regular customer was doing some shopping. This woman would only catch your attention because of her ragged…
I am sure the title has grabbed your attention. My intentions exactly. If you asked people to define “church”, the majority would describe some sort of building. Maybe a temple, a mosque, stained-glass windows, crosses, stars, pews, and hymn books. All of those things are inanimate objects. Small buildings, grandiose cathedrals, traditional, steeple-bearing buildings, and non-traditional, seeker-friendly buildings. Brick and mortar, statues, crosses, big screens, and comfy pews do NOT make a church. Not a one of those buildings is…
Daddy is sitting at one end of the couch, Livvy is at the other. With total abandon and total trust, Livvy propels herself into the air while screaming, “Catch me Daddy!”. As Daddy catches her in his arms, she squeals with delight, anxious to do it again. She will do this over and over, never doubting that Daddy will catch her. Our Heavenly DADDY does the same, He catches us when we fall, when we leap, when life knocks us…
Recently, an agnostic friend asked me why God doesn’t just speak directly to people. God does speak to people, we just don’t hear Him. We fail to recognize His voice, His urgings and His calling of us to draw near to Him. We read in the Bible numerous times of God speaking to His people. For example: Exodus 3:14; Joshua 1:1; Judges 6:18; 1 Samuel 3:11; 2 Samuel 2:1; Job 40:1; Isaiah 7:3; Jeremiah 1:7 and many others. He spoke…
Compared to my brothers, I am tiny at 5’ 4” and 115lbs. There are all much bigger than me. My three younger brothers are all well over 6 feet tall. When we were growing up, we had a doorjamb that my parents would mark our growth on. Usually, this was done on our birthday. I have seen a lot of homes with very similar doorjambs. We spend our lives being measured. Everyone wants to know the newborn’s weight and length. …
We hear it all the time to forgive and forget. The Bible instructs us to forgive and tells us how many times to forgive someone in Matthew 18:21-22. Some offenses are easy to forgive, while others seem impossible. But, can we truly forgive and forget? For most of us, it is the forgetting that is so difficult. Growing up I was not taught about forgiveness other than the forgiveness of Christ. We were never taught how to apply that same…
It is hard to lose something or someone that you love with all of your heart. Sometimes the loss stays with us a lifetime and other losses we recover from quite quickly. I lost my grandmother over 14 years ago, but it seems like yesterday that I was at her Memorial Service. She so impacted my life that her voice is in my head, her love is in my heart and all that she taught me is a part of…
Have you ever asked someone how he is doing and you get some lengthy, irrelevant, hard-to-understand answer? I asked a friend, “How are you?” This is a rough estimate of his response, “Too blessed to be stress, paddling up the river of faith with grace as my oar, trudging the road with Jesus as my light.” What? I sincerely wanted to know how he was doing. It’s laughable the multitude of responses you can get to such a simple question….