God wants us to move forward. He doesn’t want us to stay where we are. He wants to help us strengthen our trust muscles and, like the Good Shepherd He is, He wants to lead us to graze in new, bountiful pastures!

The Bible is filled with admonitions to remember. Music is a great tool to aid in memorizing Scripture. When I came to the Lord 30 years ago, my first go-to favorite Christian musician was Keith Green. His songs were easy to sing, and more importantly, he bathed his lyrics in Scripture.

When you grow up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and summer yields to fall, you root for the Steelers. It’s not even an option. It’s culture. You bleed black and gold. The home team binds every borough, city and suburb into a greater community that rises in unison to wave Terrible Towels and high five complete strangers. In the stadium, in the grocery stores, in the workplace… anywhere.

Until then, I pray that I will not only worship our King with words of praise, but that my worship will be centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ as seen in the way I live my life. In my actions. In my priorities. In the use of my time, talents and treasures. What does it mean to live a God centered life?

Don’t settle for only half of God’s plan for dealing with guilt. He does not intend for you to bear the fact or the feeling and He is strong enough to carry both.

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” (Ps 14:1a) Prior to 2018, I was an unbelieving atheist, wandering through this world with a self-centered agenda, no matter how well I hid it. Then I heard about God’s existence, creation, and Jesus’ loving death to pay my sin debt, and I repented. This began a spiritual battle against sin that continues to this day, knowing full well the error of my ways and from whence they came. 

I remember as a young girl, I wanted to grow up to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. However, as I got older and realized the reality of the time and energy requirements of med school for becoming that type of surgeon, I adjusted my career goal to be a flight nurse on life flight trauma missions. It perfectly combined my love of medicine and yearning to help others.

It was our anniversary. June 9, 2009. We were celebrating three years of marriage, and we were facing the biggest financial trial of our lives. The monetary security we had enjoyed prior to this time made us believe we were heading into a bright future. But it was now 2009, and the effects of the housing market crash mixed with job loss had emptied our pockets, our savings, and our 401k accounts.

The current events of the last several months have unveiled an almost unending barrage of human suffering. Uvalde, Ukraine, and scandal in a major church denomination have inundated the headline news. Well-meaning friends encourage us to ignore current events hoping to salvage our mental well-being. Turning off news reports may provide temporary relief, but our minds tend to veer back into the pit of despair. It’s easy to drift into neutral and waste precious time in sadness and anxiety.

When my husband was diagnosed with cancer back in 2014, our family got an up close and personal lesson on faith. Trials can lead us to a greater dependency on God and a deeper trust in His sovereignty if we let them. I’ve learned that in every situation I have a choice: I can pout, or I can praise.

Every believer is a living testimony of God's grace and a role model for the people around us. Let's start acting like one!

A wife who is loved well will pursue her husband, not to get him, because she already has him, but to get more of him. She already knows the joy of having her husband and his love. Yet, she knows that it can become something beyond what it is now, so she pursues the prize of having more of what she already has. In the same way, Paul is calling us, the bride of Christ, to strive for more of the joy we have in Christ while holding onto the hope of joy in the prize of being with him in fullness when our race is over.

Who Let the Dogs Out?

It’s an important question, though not as we pondered it in the 90s. The scripture reading from this week’s sermon begins with Paul’s warning to the church at Philippi, “Watch out for those dogs…”, (Phil. 3:2).

Have you ever taken someone’s word about who they are, only to be disappointed when you discover their actions or words aren’t consistent with who they claim to be? 

One day, this will be the reality for all of us who follow Jesus. We will worship in the fulness of God’s presence, not just free from sin and despair, but also more alive than we have ever been before.

Humanity lives in God’s perfect community until they rebel and are forced to leave; and God immediately makes promises and plans to rescue humanity. The cost would be severe, but Jesus would come and die on the cross to redeem and rescue us from our sin. All of this so that God can adopt us back into his family and his community.

Have you ever heard the grandiose stories of God performing miracles through missionaries and felt like those powerful moments were out of reach for you; or heard the incredible testimonies of people who were saved from radical scenarios and thought that you couldn’t be used by God because your story wasn’t good enough?

Every parent and educator will tell you that the most effective lessons that occur between a teacher and student are usually “caught”, not “taught”. That is the power of example. We learn by seeing how others respond, act and behave.