To see our need for restoring means we first have to see our brokenness. As my husband would say, "Don't fix what isn't broken." (That's one of the lines he uses to keep his "honey do list" a little shorter!) But there is much that is broken and we must […] [READ MORE]

Thinking about knowing God's will for our lives in any given set of circumstances can seem anything but simple! It seems like dealing with a ball of tangled up yarn with which you struggle just to find the starting end. In this following, often-quoted, portion of scripture from Jeremiah 29, God […] [READ MORE]

When it comes to waiting a long time (seventy years in the Israelites case) for God to restore something or someone, faith can take a few beatings along the way.  That's why faith has to be attached to someone...specifically to the promise made by the Person who is in charge […] [READ MORE]

Message Two: Seventy Years Seventy years! That is what God promises the Israelites after they have been taken into captivity/exile. You are going to be in this place that you don't want to be in for seventy years! "For thus says The Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will […] [READ MORE]

We all have someone or something we are longing for God to restore.  A broken marriage, a child who seems so far from who they once were, a passion we once had in our hearts, a friendship that was once so dear, the health of a loved one or ourselves..there […] [READ MORE]

The beginning of 2 Corinthians 4 begins with, "Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart."  Paul ends the chapter with the same words, "THEREFORE WE DO NOT LOSE HEART." Let me re-cap all the since have's we have looked at […] [READ MORE]

One of the greatest gifts is sharing the same faith with other believers. Notice it is the same faith - not the same personalities, opinions, ways of doing things, etc. It is kindred faith that bases life upon the truth that Jesus Christ was raised up from the dead and […] [READ MORE]

Every child has experienced the wonder of potentially finding "treasure."  The stories of buried treasure discovered, the lid of the treasure opened and spilling out gold coins or jewels is thrilling to their minds.  Games like Scavenger Hunt are built around this love of treasure.  And people long past childhood […] [READ MORE]

Ministry is one of those words.  We use it fairly frequently in Christian circles to describe a number of things: work, blessing other people, using gifts that we possess...I'm not saying there is anything wrong with using the word this way but I do find it so refreshing that Paul […] [READ MORE]

Last week, in the first devotional on "Since We Have," I spoke about TRUST.  Today the message is about HOPE.Hope is listed in the three things that will ever remain: And now abide (remain) faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor 13:13) Hope […] [READ MORE]

SINCE WE HAVE...SUCH TRUSTI've been stuck in 2 Corinthians 4 for some time now.  It is such a life line when the testing fire gets the heat turned up!  This morning I realized that it starts back in chapter three to preface a lot of truth with, "Since we have.." […] [READ MORE]

I haven't written for a long time. We have had a lot of struggle going on in our family and I didn't know how to write outside of what was happening and couldn't very well write about what WAS happening! I am not normally one to "read" a prayer very often […] [READ MORE]

Let's just talk about running for a few minutes.  There is "running" from conflict or vulnerability - pain or situations that put the heat on where we resist change. We call it running because we find a way to get those running shoes on and head in a different direction […] [READ MORE]

Psalm 119:30 "I have chosen the way of truth; Your judgments I have laid before me."When I first became a Christ follower, I didn't know anything about choices.  I didn't even realize I was making a choice to follow Jesus! I just thought I had been swept up into this […] [READ MORE]

The serenity prayer has some lines in it that I especially appreciate. "Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is and not as I would have it."We all have […] [READ MORE]

My soul clings to the dust; Revive me according to Your Word. Psalm 119:25 We came from dust. But God has breathed His life into us, made us new in the image of Jesus Christ and has imparted His divine nature to us. But sometimes we go back to the dust […] [READ MORE]

I think we could all say that we have spent far too much time caring about what people think and say about us. The older I get, the clearer it becomes how it really doesn't matter. Not only does it not matter, it is a great freedom to decide not […] [READ MORE]

Last night Baba (a.k.a. my husband, Randy) and I were driving our three grandsons to the McDonalds with the playground. We have the best talks while driving. The oldest one said he is going to get a dog when he grows up. (His mother has obviously told him he isnt […] [READ MORE]

Blindness...it is such a terrible thing. Who of us as a child hasn't covered our eyes to try and imagine what it would be like to not be able to see?  There are games that impose blindness: pin the tail on the donkey, card tricks, hitting the paper machet object […] [READ MORE]

I am diverting from going through Psalm 119 today.  I have something else burning in my heart that I want to talk about. I went to see Les Miserables. As one comment on the internet stated: If you have not gone and BEEN SLAIN by the final scene, you missed the […] [READ MORE]

Some things we never forget: our first kiss, first heart break, the smell of our mother's skin, leaving home, getting picked for the team, the birth of our children, etc. I have mentioned all "big category" forget-me-nots. You know as well as I do, there are some things on a […] [READ MORE]

Meditation is big these days...there are some groups that think they just thought up a brand new way of getting de-stressed. I don't know a lot about how it works but I do know that emptying your mind and fixating your thoughts or words on what you want to be […] [READ MORE]

Today I would like to thank my Father for every time I choose His way. I want to take joy in it. I want to get as much joy out of the fact that I have the understanding and power to choose His way as if I was suddenly rich "I […] [READ MORE]

I would still like to talk about my father...my earthly father. He never watched t.v. If he was home and not napping on the living room couch or sitting out on the front porch, you would find him sitting at the dining room table (which served as our kitchen table, […] [READ MORE]

I have hidden lots of things in my heart. Memories...good and painful. Longings for answers to my prayers and hurts I don't want anyone to see. Sometimes God's Words are buried beneath these kinds of things and somehow it gets lost. "Your Word I have hidden in my heart, that I […] [READ MORE]