The disciples must have been beyond exhaustion. After helping Jesus feed thousands with a miraculous picnic on the shores of Galilee, they set out in their fishing boat to cross the sea. They had been battling this storm for over nine hours. What had become of Jesus ? He’d insisted that they start across the … Read more
There are so many kinds of love in our world. The love of a mother for her newborn, the love of parents for their kids, (even the 15 year olds!), the love of grandparents, falling in love… But the love of Jesus is absolutely astounding. It never ceases to amaze me that He, who knows … Read more
It’s inevitable. Summer’s glory has faded and slanted into autumn’s waning light. We New Englanders feel the change and brace for another winter. We look forward to the first nip of frost, the crunch of a freshly picked apple, the sweet aroma of wood smoke curling upward into the chilling air. Slowly the colors creep … Read more
Everyone loves a luscious piece of fruit – a tree-ripened apple, a juicy peach. Ruby red strawberries. Maybe that’s why the result of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling is called “fruit”. Not veggies, not grains, but fruit! The Apostle Paul reminds us in Galatians 5 of the fruit the Holy Spirit produces in us when we … Read more
We know about the fire of judgment. But there is another fire for the believer – the fire that we offer up to God day and night on the altar of incense in heaven’s temple. How can this be? If we can believe it, if we can receive it, we who have been born again … Read more
We might startle at these words in 1 Jn. 2:6: “Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did.” Really? A challenge! So let’s look back at Psalm 40 for some help here. “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did … Read more
How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my … Read more
Psalm 84 assumes that on this highway to Heaven, we will pass through the Valley of Baka. The Valley of Weeping. Yes, it happens to us all. But when our hearts are set on Jesus, when we live in His Strength, something wonderful happens in the middle of the tears. “Somebody told me about the … Read more
Did you ever have a favorite childhood hiding place, a place where you felt safe from the world? I used to love to play under my grandma’s huge willow tree, its branches reaching all the way to the ground, surrounding me with a curtain of green. My hiding place. Life can be challenging! We never … Read more
How do you picture the new year as it stretches out before you? Do you see an unknown path, twisting and turning in obscurity, old troubles and new worries jumping out at you from the darkness? Well, that is partly true. No one, scripture tells us, can know what tomorrow will bring. We just don’t … Read more