For many years in church service, I have loved my times of reflection upon the Scripture passage that my pastor plans to teach us any given Sunday. I do this as an act of worship and of preparation for worship. I not only read the selected passage, but I also read a synopsis of the book from which the passage comes. 

We all have a  natural instinct to make judgments.  From a survival perspective, judging if a fruit was safe to eat, a bridge could hold our weight,  or a person was an enemy or a foe could be a matter of  life or death.  Since we are  created in the image of God, who is a judge, we judge.  

I’ve begged God to show me change. Being a toddler of three in Christ now, I’ve struggled to grow in some areas, doubted my salvation, and wrestled with my own view of God…

My husband and I love to hike. We enjoy taking in the great outdoors with all of our senses: seeing the trees and flowers all around; feeling the solid earth beneath our feet; smelling the scents of honeysuckle or pine; hearing the gentle rush from a nearby stream…

If you’re a parent, you’ve heard it and as a kid, you’ve said it. “That’s not fair!”

Obedience is a constant battle: my will versus God’s will. It’s a battle that can only be won by surrendering. Jesus said that if we love Him, we will obey Him. (John 14:15, 21,23) Even when and if we don’t want to.

As she ended her message at a Munich church in 1947, Corrie Ten Boom noticed a balding man in a gray overcoat approaching her. She froze. She knew this man well; he’d been one of the most brutal guards at Ravensbrück, one who had mocked the women prisoners as they showered…

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?