The phrase "Practice Random Kindness & Senseless Acts of beauty", written by Anne Herbert on a PLACEMAT in Sausalito, Ca. in 1982, was meant to be the antithesis of "random acts of violence and senseless acts of cruelty."

Last Sunday, as my husband and I transitioned to daylight savings time (over an extra cup of coffee and caffeine boost, as I recall), we found ourselves in a thoughtful discussion, marveling at God's incredible design of the Earth and how we as humans, attempt to adapt to the natural rhythms of creation.

John the Baptist stood out like a sore thumb. Created and set apart by God for a specific task. A great task. The greatest. To prepare the way of the Lord. A human megaphone for Jesus, John the Baptist spoke words of maximum volume as he pointed others to the One and Only and prophetically authenticated the divinity and eternal nature of Christ.

One day, a man wearing a coat was standing out in a field. As the wind and the sun were looking down, the wind said to the sun, “I’ll bet I can remove his coat from him quicker than you can!” The sun accepted the challenge.

We’ve probably all been exposed to just enough English Class to know that skilled writers don’t only tell their stories in what they write but also in how they write it. Foreshadowing is but one of many tools authors employ to engage their readers’ attention and imagination. The best authors craft their content, inviting us into their stories to explore meaning and significance beneath the surface.  

While the disciples were building walls, erecting hierarchies and in fighting over who is the greatest, Jesus cut off any temptation to minimize the size of someone’s works. Some will show their sincere faith in Jesus in great ways, but genuine faith can also be seen in simple acts of faith like sharing a cup of water with someone in need. We also must be careful not to look down on or minimize any genuine work of faith.

The spectacle of the Super Bowl mirrors the temptations we all face in  life: the lure of recognition, the pressure to conform, and the fleeting nature of worldly success.

I played division one college volleyball, but that fact doesn’t usually affect my ministry opportunities. Most women’s ministry directors that invite me to participate in their conferences care primarily about my speaking, Bible teaching and worship leading skills, not my ball handling, vertical jump and net skills. But over the years, I have had some pretty cool niche ministry invitations due to my athletic experience…

Between cold weather and playoff football, I probably spend more time in front of a television in January than any other month...

There is a deadly tendency in fallen humanity to take from this a call to “do better.” For the longest time in my own life, I viewed this verse as a threat where my application of it was to strive for obedience to prove my love. But that is exactly backward. And that is where the counterintuitive cure comes into play.

I love to talk to new Christians. They inspire me and remind me of the fire I experienced as a new believer. I felt set free and everything was new uncomplicated, and my speech and actions were all about Jesus as He changed me into a new creation as child of God…

As the calendar turns to a new year, many of us feel inspired to set goals, reorganize our lives, and pursue new opportunities. As we plan for 2025, we must ask ourselves: are our lives aligned with Christ's eternal mission? Are we truly following Him as His disciples?

I’ve always loved connecting dots. In my childhood it was dots with numbers on paper that stranded together to form an object. As I threw my attention to the page and followed the numbered steps, a picture developed. A new creation appeared that brought joy to my little-girl heart.

In his book “The Cost of Discipleship”, Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined the term “cheap grace”. Cheap grace is meant to describe a shallow and convenient form of Christianity that emphasizes only the pleasant and easy parts without incorporating repentance, confession, discipline, and sacrifice. Cheap grace is salvation without the cross.`

One of my biggest pet peeves is not feeling listened to. I can detect it very quickly in a conversation.  The other person hears what I say.  But their responses reveal a clear lack of understanding, or a desire to try.  They are waiting for their next turn to speak. The conversation begins to feel like an empty exchange of words in which I am not being seen nor heard. 

We may think of ourselves as the seven loaves and few fishes – insufficient to meet the need. And that is correct! But if we withhold our aliquo, we should expect nihilo to follow. Yet, when we place ourselves into Jesus’ hands, we can be confident that we will be the something through which nothing will be impossible for him.

Mark Chapter 7 is a pivotal scene in Jesus’ ministry.  Exhausted from an intense period of teaching, healing, continuous skepticism from his disciples, and growing opposition from religious leaders, Jesus steps away from the familiar ground of Israel and enters the non-Jewish areas of Tyre and Sidon for rest and reflection…

In Jesus’ day the rabbis of the old covenant had added so much to the law of God that they had bound the people’s conscience. Where God had left men free, the Pharisees had put them in chains. Much of Jesus’ teaching and most of his conflicts with the Pharisees arose over this issue.