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
The air was thick with the smell of fear. The powers of darkness, armed and dangerous, converged on the little group in the Garden. Jesus knew His time had come. There was no turning back from the Cross. Suddenly Peter reached for his sword. This was his moment to lay it all down for the … Read more
No way! God will wipe away all our tears, right? And yet I hear someone crying. Oh, it’s John! “I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.” Why was John crying? That scroll contained the Judgment of God that would undo Evil and bring … 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
The old year has survived its darkest days, and now the earth turns toward light. We get the first glimpses in Tammikuu, Turning Month, JANUARY. Now the days lengthen in the tiniest of fractions. Snowstorms come and go, never failing to catch our attention with their feathery beauty, in spite of the work they bring … 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
“Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.” Psalm 84 assumes that on … 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