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6′ of Hope
That’s me in the blue sweatshirt, hugging my friend Alison, just a few weeks after they diagnosed her 5 year old daughter with leukemia. Her world has been upside down and social distancing since Christmas. The rest of the world is catching up with the understanding that our germs might harm someone else who can’t handle them. I’m a hugger, and the thought of not hugging people anymore is really making me so sad. I was honestly having a hard time this afternoon and got a little weepy. It made me think about the studies they did with orphan babes and how the ones that had little to no human…
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Faith vs Fear: Praying with King Jehosephat
“I don’t know what to do!” How many times has this been my cry to God? So very many. How about you? In the face of overwhelming circumstances, fear and anxiety threaten to choke out my faith. Imagine my surprise when I heard my own distress call echoed in Jehosephat’s prayer. In this study of 2 Chronicles 20 we’ll learn how Jehosephat prayed and was able to stand in faith despite his fear when three nations attacked. Let’s let God’s Word encourage us and teach us how to overcome fear by setting our eyes on God. 2 Chronicles 20 1After this the Moabites and Ammonites, and with them some of…
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Book Review: Redeeming Love
“Oh, Lord, why was I so blind? Why couldn’t I hear? Why did it take so much pain for me to see that you have been reaching out to me all along?” Angel, Redeeming Love The book Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers brings the story of redemption to brilliant life. It is full of struggle, heartache, and revelation. It’s a fictional allegory of the minor prophet book of Hosea from the Bible set during the California gold rush. It follows a girl from the devastation of being sold into prostitution at a young age to her rescue by a man named Michael Hosea, and ultimately her salvation by God. Michael’s…
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Book Review: Hinds’ Feet on High Places
“This is the story of how Much-Afraid escaped from her Fearing relatives and went with the Shepherd to the High Places where “perfect love casteth out fear.” -Hannah Hurnard Fear. We all experience fear. Sometimes it masquerades as anxiety, sadness, procrastination, rationalization, and escapism. It’s easy to read scriptures that tell us not to have fear, but oh so hard to live it practically. From that very first line I was hooked and excited to go on the journey with Much-Afraid. Much Afraid is physically handicapped, having crippled feet that made her limp and a crooked mouth that disfigured her face. The Shepherd (who is Jesus) called her to follow…
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Summer Fruit Devotion: Self-Control Day 5
By the Spirit “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before,…
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Summer Fruit Devotion: Self-Control Day 3
Train the Young “But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your…
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Summer Fruit Devotion: Self-Control Day 2
Of the Heart “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give…
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Summer Fruit Devotion: Self-Control Day 1
Slaying Dragons “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” Proverbs 25:28 “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like…
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Summer Fruit Devotion: Gentleness Day 5
Unity in Gentleness “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:1-6 The Spirit loves unity. The Spirit also loves diversity. The next part of…
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Summer Fruit Devotion: Gentleness Day 4
Gentle & Quiet “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to…
