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Trust God’s Choice in Addressing Your Pain
This year has been painful for many of us. Because of Covid-19, we haven’t seen loved ones for months because they live far away. Travel is risky for older folks because of their vulnerability to the disease. We keep praying for it to go away, and it just won’t! The flu at least ends after a few months. This thing is persistent and wicked. This pain is affecting our lives in new and challenging ways. I was in a Bible study recently talking about how pain affects our lives and our perspective of God’s goodness to us. We were studying the Mark 5:21-43 accounts of the woman who had been…
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Two Aspects of Trusting God
Has God placed something in your heart for you to do? It could be correcting sinful behavior in your own life. It could be serving someone else. It could be speaking up in a situation where a voice with biblical principles needs to be heard. Whatever it is involves two aspects of trusting God. (1) You must trust him as you step forward and do your part. And, (2) you must trust him to do his part in the areas over which you have no control. Those two aspects of trusting God are necessary to act on what God has placed in your heart to do. Esther’s story in the…
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Work is an act of worship, not a curse
Work in any culture is…well, work. Sometimes enjoyable. Often hard and exhausting. Sometimes challenging, more likely because of the people with whom you work rather than the work itself. That applies to any kind of work. When you are working with your God-given skills (and assuming you are doing work that is legal and moral), all work can be an act of worship. Yes, I said ALL WORK, not just if you are on staff of a ministry organization. You might spend two hours a week at church or Bible Study and get the wrong message that the other 166 hours of your week are second class compared to church…
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A Morning Prayer
Soul care requires us to realize our utter dependence on Christ who said, “Apart from me, you can do nothing,” (John 15:5). Today I read this morning prayer by John Baillie (1886-1960) and felt its message was perfect to share with you: O God my Creator and Redeemer, I may not go forth today except You accompany me with Your blessing. Let not the vigor and freshness of the morning, or the glow of good health, or the present prosperity of my undertakings, deceive me into a false reliance upon my own strength. All these good gifts have come to me from You. They were Yours to give and they…
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How to Glorify God at School (Part Two)
Last year—at about this time—I wrote about Anna starting junior high and how students can glorify God at school. You can read about it here. What about us as parents? What about those of us who anticipate challenges that will in no doubt bring trials, problems and difficult situations at school? Every year I meet with Anna’s new teachers to talk to them about LVAS, the FM system and the struggles my hard-of-hearing student will have in their class. No matter how much I try to prepare them, problems always arise. It never fails. For us, starting a new school year means dealing with apathetic attitudes, stares and questions. Each…
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When We Need Eyes to See
Job has been the book of study lately for a group of women in my community. The first day we started, my friend and I commiserated that we get a little anxious when Job's story comes up. Kind of like God is trying to prepare us for the doom to come. We shrink from the prospect of suffering, even though we know there's purpose in it. We are like Christ sharing the fellowship of his suffering (Philippians 1:29). But it's still hard. The story in Job chapters 1-2 gives me pause. Because honestly, there's a whole lot going on behind the scenes of the story being lived out on earth.…
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Tightly Secure in Him
“Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.” Hebrews 10:22–23 (NLT), (bold and italics mine) Many of us know what insecurity looks like. When it appears and sets in our lives, especially in our abilities—at our jobs, our homes, our relationships and how we parent—we attach ourselves to someone or something we feel is stronger, more competent. And…
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How to Glorify God at School
Just got home from taking my student to walk her schedule and practice opening her locker at her new school. Despite all the fears that come with her disability—you can read about that here—I feel so thankful for God’s faithfulness in Anna’s life, as she gets ready to start junior high in a few weeks. One of the challenges Anna faces this year has more to do with her desire to glorify God at school than anything else. I told her glorifying God can produce all sorts of blessings, but it can also lead to bullying. She didn’t even blink. Instead she asked, “What am I suppose to…
