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Witnesses
What comes to mind when you hear “witness”? I think of ABC’s Eyewitness News and the 1985 thriller Witness starring Harrison Ford about an Amish boy who witnesses a murder (yes, I’m dating myself). Recently, however, I’ve been challenged to step up as a witness. In fact, ALL believers are called to testify as witnesses. Not in a court of law. But in our lives and through our work. Acts 1:8 proclaims Jesus Christ’s final words before ascending into heaven, and what Jesus says still applies to all believers today: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all…
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What Do We Do When God Is Silent?
Today I'm happy to host guest blogger Laura Murray. Laura is a pastor of Spiritual Formation in the Dallas area and loves to help people grow in faith. She is the author of a new book titled Pray as You Are: Finding Your Voice in Prayer. You can sign up for more from Laura at www.prayasyouare.com. You look for him to intervene in your daughter’s life and he does not move. You stand at the crossroads of a medical decision and he remains quiet. You long for him to answer the question, “why?” and you are met with disheartening silence. God’s silence can be painful, especially when we long for an…
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Back to School Prayer Acrostic
A couple weeks ago, my son bounded down the stairs before I left for work, proclaiming, “I am so excited!” “Why is that?” I asked. “I get to start Kindergarten,” he proudly proclaimed. Then he marched over to our fridge calendar and showed me how many days until the start of the school year. My older daughter, on the other hand, isn’t so sure she wants summer to be over. She’s nervous about a new class and fears it won’t be as fun as last year. Whatever your situation—starting school, packing a child’s lunch, or slowly sipping pumpkin lattes—chances are you’ve got a lot on your mind. Yet, no matter…
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3 Ways to Seek Peace When You’re Anxious
This blog post comes from the frontline of anxiety. I stopped today numerous times to focus on breathing because of a tight chest of emotions. Letting the peace of God rule in our hearts sometimes takes more work than reciting a verse we memorized. Do you ever feel so anxious you want to scream or hide? Here are 3 ways to seek peace when you are anxious: 1. Name. Put a name to your anxiety. Anxiety is a red flag that something needs changed or taken care of. What is it? We can’t change or take care of a feeling. 2. Pray. After you pray, pray some more. When anxiety clenches…
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I Spy
Remember the childhood game of “I Spy”? Someone chooses an object in the room and tells just the color: “I spy something red.” Then everyone else tries to guess the item by its color only. The remarkable thing is that as soon as the color red is mentioned, all the red things in the room start grabbing your eye. You may have been in the room many times over multiple years and never noticed a single red object, but now dozens are so obvious. The point is, now you are looking for red where before you weren’t. We see what we look for This same principle…
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The Spiritual Battle
My heart is stirred by the spiritual battle raging around us all the time. Oh, that God would open the eyes of His children to see what He sees. I would that our ears might hear the clashing of swords and the clink of the armor that fills the spiritual realm. Praying believers are warriors who shield one another from the fiery darts of the enemy whose desire is to oppress God’s children. Prayer warriors wage war against the enemy who grips tightly the unbelieving souls of those in spiritual darkness. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 makes it clear that there is a spiritual battle. “For though we live as human beings,…
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2018: The Year of Open Doors
As we approach the mid-point of the year, most New Year’s resolutions are a faint and distant memory. High hopes for 2018 smacked into overloaded schedules and the realities of our daily To Do’s. Many of us are slogging into summer, yet we still muster hope for new opportunities and renewed purpose. What if the remainder of this year could become a doorway to new opportunities for each one of us? What if 2018 could still become “The Year of Open Doors” for you? The idea of a year possessing special meaning is nothing new. In Chinese culture, each year is themed on one of twelve zodiac animals, and many…
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Good Summer Reads
A good friend emailed me commenting on how much she is looking forward to the summer break. I do want to slow down this summer and catch my breath. Maybe even read a little in some of the books I have under my bed! Oh, how delicious – having a space of time to read; to let your soul recover from living in the fast lane and slow down to the speed of life. I, like my friend, am the stacker reader type. Books are stacked on most visible surfaces in my home. While I have more books waiting to be read on shelves that shout – no more room…
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Praying for Heroines
Do you have any special women or girls in your life that have made a difference? Let’s take a moment to focus on our heroines. Time to give them some prayer support. When I was growing up many women were housewives, stay at home moms. They were somehow lesser than the working women by our cultural standards. There was even a popular song with lyrics like these, “Oh, such are the dreams of the everyday housewife you see everywhere any time of the day; an everyday housewife who gave up the good life for me” The song begins with her looking in the mirror and seeing that time has…
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In the Shadow of Christmas is a Cross
Christmas, for many, is colored with twinkling lights, the sound of singing, bright colored packages topped with elegant bows, cookies, candy, parties and laughter. But for others, Christmas is colored with the stark reality of roaring fires that ravage neighborhoods, hospital rooms, funeral homes, broken relationships, drunken relatives, and memories of those whose faces are missing from thier lives. As we teach our children about Jesus, God’s greatest gift to the world, we must not forget to teach them that the manger was shadowed by a cross. The Messiah in the manger was destined to be a man of sorrows acquainted with all our grief, bearing all our sin…
