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The Scarred Savior; Permanent Marks of the Lamb
The other disciples told him, “We have seen the LORD.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.” John 20:25 There are multiple entries on pages of tattered journals where I describe what I believe my heart to look like, scarred and twisted, marked deep by hateful words and actions, ugly. This image haunted me for a long time as I wondered if a heart like that could be loved, could possibly be softened enough to love others. Walls hide hearts like that, built to keep others out, to keep others…
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More Like Falling in Love
Give me rules, I will break them. Show me lines, I will cross them. I need more than truth to believe. I need a truth that lives, moves and breathes to sweep me off my feet. It’s gotta be more like falling in love than something to believe in. Jason Gray- More Like Falling in Love If you have followed this blogging journey for a bit, we’ve stepped, climbed, run, shoveled, hoped, prayed, wondered, and even wandered. But we haven’t yet fallen. Someday, we’re gonna have to fall or we’ve missed the entire point of the journey. How exactly do you fall in love with Jesus? The God man who…
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When we Cannot Trace His Hand, Trust His Heart
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Genesis 22:1-2 Let’s take a walk with Abraham. He has the legs and the spine of an elderly man, and moves cautiously up the mountain. His son Isaac is with him, carrying the wood for the offering upon his young back. This son, Abraham and Sarah’s delight, a gift of youth given in the last years of…
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Engaging in a Prickly World
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 ESV It seems the world is a bit prickly lately. Perhaps this is my observation and it only applies to southwest Michigan, but for some reason, I’m thinking it’s endemic. Plenty of confounding reasons for humans to be wound a little tighter than days past, so many in fact, I am not even going to list them. You can find them for yourself by typing the letters “Daily News” into your favorite search engine. It is possible to avoid…
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Maintaining A Perspective of Hope; Multi-Generational Sowing
“For here the saying holds true, One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered their labor.” John 4:37-38 Inhabitants of the free world stopped and gasped this week, breathing through their social media outlets with a call for prayer. A shattered republic standing in a pool of blood, blood from centuries of humans battling for the right to rule and the blood of foreign men and women dressed in battle fatigues, fighting for something. Something sometimes defined, sometimes not. My heart broke for strong, intelligent, steadfast women, children, a generation of young people who…
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Bloom Where You are Planted; Living Your Best Life Now
“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” John 15:11 He keeps shaping and reshaping us from glory to glory, and when living becomes nearly the death of us, He leans over our clay bodies and breathes fresh life into our lungs. Sometimes I can reason like this – peacefully, sensibly, with wonder and awe and even tearful gratitude that God would be kind to entrust me with difficulties. Other times all I can say is “What the heck?” Beth Moore – Chasing Vines What the heck? We’ve all been there. Planted firmly in an extended season…
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Marvelous Light; Climbing Out of your Pit
He redeemed my soul from going down to the pit, and I will live to enjoy the light. Job 33:30 At one time or another you will find yourself deeply invested in pit living. Pit living? Yes, living (and often quite comfortably) in the muck and mire. Unwanted circumstances or relationships may lead you to pit living. Choices made by you or others may prepare the slippery path for your feet. Wallowing in self-pity, anger, guilt, shame, resentment, fear, anxiety, and bitterness (go ahead, add to the list of negative mindsets that long to bounce on the walls of this self-made prison) will fasten your feet deep in the murky…
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The Invitation of the Cross; Walking Like Jesus
Fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 My preference is to skip the gospel accounts of Christ’s crucifixion. I begin the preceding chapters that tell the story of the last supper, the betrayal by Judas and the tears in Gethsemane, and I want to stop. I want to jump over the next chapter and celebrate the resurrection. I won’t describe the gory details of death by crucifixion. But the word “excruciating” is derived from the words, “out of the…
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Discipleship; More than You can Ask or Imagine
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow Me,’ Jesus said. “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. When He had gone a little farther, He saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with hired men and followed Him. Mark 1:16-20 The beauty of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is its simplicity. Before time was yet time, He…
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Choosing Something from a Landscape Cluttered with Nothings
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways. Psalm 119:37 I find myself living in the midst of superfluous options, like one who sits and eats from a box of chocolates. Chocolates that come packaged in a flat white cardboard box, lined in neat rows. A box once opened reveals a homogenous landscape of too sweet, too many. I am in the middle, surrounded by flimsy brown papers, reminiscent of a Shel Silverstein line drawing (complete with a slightly cynical but true rhyme) with my pigtails askew, cheeks and tummy puffy, holding a partial box of carrageenan filled chocolatey choices. Partaking fully in…
