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Hos 5:11-12 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after filth [or “to follow after human precepts”]. But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah.
 

 I watched the movie “Brave” with several children while waiting for their parents to pick them up. The message of the story is that the daughter learns to respect and value her mother (while the mother also comes to appreciate her daughter’s point of view)—their strained relationship is healed at the end of the movie, and the daughter treats the mother more lovingly in the end.
            One of the girls’ mothers approached her older daughter. “Does this movie give you ideas about how to treat your mother better?”

Valentine.
 
Good names usually have a story behind them. Had everything gone according to our plan, my family would never have bought her. But God’s plan was different.
 
Our plan was for us to purchase a pup from the litter before her litter was born. Shortly before we were to pick up our pup, we had a call from the breeder. Another buyer had picked up a pup from that litter, and when that pup became seriously ill, she returned it to the breeder. All the pups in that litter died.

We take for granted the many invisible sources of power surrounding us daily. Wi-Fi signals power our smart phones and tablets. Electricity empowers everything from lights to garage doors. Soon the summer sun will remind us of the enormous energy in solar power.

As the Table Conference approaches at Bent Tree Fellowship April 19-20, it has been f un getting prepared for this inaugural event.  One of our speakers will be Lee Strobel. He has written many books on Jesus and Christianity for our culture and the church. So I sat down with him at DTS chapel and interviewed him via skype last week. It was a great conversation. Here it is:

It's been almost forty years since I received my first phone call and note of encouragement. I was a wife without a clue how to love my husband, a mother without a clue how to raise the two beautiful little daughters I adored, and a woman drowning in depression. A neighbor invited me to a women's Bible study that met at her church. I sat next to her in a circle of women who loved Jesus and listened to them express their faith in God in response to what they had studied that week in His Word. I was enthralled by their insight, kindness, and acceptance of a poor silly girl they welcomed into their world. It was a world which I did not understand but was strangely drawn to.

Bible.org is currently serving alongside graduates of Global Proclamation Academy for two pastors conferences in Kenya.

I have the privilege of serving as the Children’s Pastor at my local church that meets at a public middle school.  We pay the school district a great deal of money each month to use their facility.  Part of what we pay for each month is the Janitorial service that is contracted by the School District.  The gentleman that the janitorial service has blessed us with to clean up after us on Sunday mornings is a man named Jose.  Jose is from Central America and is perhaps the hardest working man I’ve ever met.   He works 2 jobs, 17 hour days – 5 days a week and probably another 20 – 24 hours on the weekend doing other work plus be our church's amazing janitor.

As a non-Catholic follower of Christ, I am intrigued by Pope Francis. He seems to have little interest in the trappings of power and wealth that have characterized his position for centuries.  A Pope carrying his own suitcase seems out of place. The Vicar of Rome beginning his tenure by asking for prayer for himself is abnormal. The leader of the Catholic Church wearing simple garments looks out of place. He reminds me more of Mother Theresa than any of the previous Popes I have observed. I wonder how a man who lives simply and humbly will change the character of the papacy, not only during his time as Pope but for all who follow him.
 
But apart from any precedence he may set for the Catholic Church, this Pope provides an example that should make the rest of us pause and evaluate ourselves and our own churches.