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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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Settling into the Rhythm of Waiting
From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for Him. Isaiah 64:4 ESV Sheltered between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the Bay of Fundy boasts the world’s highest tides. Every six or so hours, the land is blanketed by over one hundred million tons of seawater and then exposed again as the water recedes. Like a tub of water in constant motion orchestrated by the sun and the moon, the tide pulls in and then retreats, exposing creatures and causing boats to sit tilted on the sandy bottom. Stand in the Bay…
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Baby Steps; Discerning the Movement of God
At the beginning of your (Daniel) pleas for mercy, a word went out. Daniel 9:23 ESV Every single breath, a miracle, biochemical pathways dependent upon exact translation of amino acids from RNA, sequenced in order, folded perfectly, matched exactly to a receptor, up regulating, down regulating. Microscopic machines driven by chemistry, and ultimately tiny, tiny waves of energy. We are walking, breathing miracles, always at work, even while at rest. Don’t believe in miracles? Our eyes often scan the horizon of our lives watching and waiting on a miracle, fretting that the God who created us has absentmindedly left us to our own devices. Sixty-four beats per minute, my resting…
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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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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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Be Still; The Ever Powerful Presence of God
See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and His arm rules for Him. See, His reward is with Him, and His recompense accompanies Him. Isaiah 40:10 The earth is abuzz with spring, birdsong has been calling forth the morning since before dawn. There are whitecaps on the lake across the road, small waves awakened by the wind. Chainsaws are humming in the distance, clearing what winter has left behind. Children are playing, shouting, pups are claiming their boundary lines. The world is loud on this typically quiet goes nowhere street. I sit as the morning sun hits my face, bombarded with the noise, trying to discern what is what, wondering…
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Hide and Seek; Stepping into the Storm
I said, “You are my servant”, I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:9-10 Like a spring storm that quietly begins to rumble in the distance, doubt rolls in ever so subtly winding itself around this thing called faith. Uneasiness sets in, joy and peace crumble, questions that have long been answered emerge like unwanted shoots firing through my mind. Faith is a shield (Ephesians 6:16) and my shield is down, flaming arrows…
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God’s Good and Very Good
Long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 2 Peter 3:5-6 We scramble on all fours, claiming the granite rock first with a hand and then a foot, breathing hard but steady. The sun is warm, the air is cool. We turn to see what has been left behind, to measure how far we have come. It is a majestic sight, set against blue sky mottled with small clouds. We watch for rocks worn smooth by hands and feet that have already ascended the path. Anna has…
