Most twenty-somethings are eagerly focused on climbing the career ladder, getting married, having children, traveling around the world, enjoying entertainment and adventure, and planning out their general direction in life. When I was younger, I had big goals too.

Pastor Dan preached this week on the forgiveness of sins, and especially brought home the fact that we are excellent at suppressing the truth and minimizing our sin in a variety of ways. Without a right knowledge of how wicked our sins are, we can never seek forgiveness.

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with the mirror for most of my life. Being overly self-conscious of how I looked on the outside would summarize my teenage years. Like most girls that age I wanted to be seen as pretty to gain the attention of others…particularly boys. 

So what mission are you on for God? Are you enduring and trusting the process while keeping your eye on the goal and your ears attuned to the Spirit of God? Are you strategizing as you encounter circumstances that appear to thwart the goal?

In my estimation, the most chilling words in the Bible center not on Hell but on judgment. To judge is to separate the wheat from the chaff; the sheep from the goats; the lost from the found.

In the first few moments of the movie, we watched her light up and ask hard questions as her beautiful mama told her stories at bedtime. Brave curiosity and fearless adventure twinkled in her eyes as she ran about and soaked in the activities and people of the all-female, Amazonian warrior-filled island of Themyscira.

The resurrection is a beautiful, terrifying, and fascinating truth to behold. We as believers read the eyewitnesses’ accounts in Scripture and believe the Word of God, and that faith is a gift we can only receive from God Himself. And how grateful we should be for such a gift!

“High priest” can be found over 40 times in the Old and New Testaments before we get to the book of Hebrews, where for the first time Jesus is mentioned as our high priest.

Satan does not want us to revere God as the all-powerful, perfect King of Kings that He is, and his plan to deceive and destroy anyone who loves God will continue until Jesus returns.

Convenience. Sacrifice. Two different words. Two different worlds.

“Peace-faking?” Whoa. My mind was in a whirl. Thoughts and images from the last 46 years began to fill my mind. Is that what I’ve done? Wait. Isn’t avoiding conflict a good thing? And what is “peace-faking” anyway? 

Do you want to see God? A simple question with a seemingly obvious answer. The question is not as straightforward as it may seem yet it's answer lies at the heart of this week’s beatitude. “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.” 

When our kids were itty-bitty, my husband Brad and I used to hold little hands a lot.

Hunger and thirst are sensations that are unavoidable in our human lives. They are necessary for survival in our mortal frames which depend on food and water to continue living. The only problem is that after eating or drinking, we hunger and thirst again soon after.

I thought to myself, “Better buckle up, buttercup, and listen closely, because I think you’re about to have your definition of meekness redefined.”

On Mother’s Day, 2018, my beloved mom took her last breath and went to be with Jesus.

I remembered the day that I brought my broken and haughty spirit into a service to worship the LORD and the Spirit of God suddenly revealed me to myself and…gloriously…revealed Himself to me. I was shown to be nothing more than a beggar…a beggar for people’s love.

As a parent to four boys spanning the ages of 16 to 22, I have no shortage of cliches, teachable moments and sage wisdom as to the benefits of going against the grain…