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Loving and Giving
“For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
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Don’t Be a Valentine’s Day Scrooge
I’m known to be a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to Valentine’s Day. If it was appropriate to proclaim, “Bah humbug!” to the day, I probably would. Consider Exhibit A: Buying kid’s Valentine’s Day cards for my son to exchange with his preschool classmates had me grousing and grumbling to my husband: “I stood in the grocery store Valentine’s aisle for ten minutes looking for cards that weren’t too girly, too scary (monsters), or too dumb.” “Why do they make parents do this?” “They will just throw these cards away anyway.” “I really don’t like these silly school parties.” On and on I moaned, muttered, mumbled, and whined.…
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Better to Have Loved & Lost?
Think about a time when you wholeheartedly loved someone and felt adored by them. As you think about that person––spouse, parent, boyfriend or girlfriend, sibling, child––how would you describe that love? What emotions or feelings come to mind? I think of: expectation, joy, excitement, purpose, belonging, peace, contentment, hope. As human beings, we cannot live healthy, abundant, prolonged lives without love. We are created to love. We long for love. We will do crazy things to show our love. But at some point in our lives, we will all lose love. What then? · A husband sits silently, mourning the end of 50 years with his beloved bride. · A…
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What God Says about Me
One of the top search phrases leading people to Bible.org is this question, “What does God say about me?” That could be a natural question for anyone to ask who does not already know the Bible’s teachings. But, a lot of times, that question is wrapped up in mega insecurity, even among Christians. Perhaps this question is constantly rolling over in your mind. Looking at stuff on the internet and reading through some devotionals and Bible studies, it’s obvious that there is a lot of shallow teaching out there that focuses constantly on our sinfulness (and, yes, every human is prone to sinfulness) but leaves out the good news of…
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Fully Known
It’s intimidating to think of being fully known by anyone, much less God. No matter how “together” our lives may be (or appear to be), we all have junk in the closet. Things that we’d rather others not find out about. Things that we feel need to stay hidden. Things that are embarrassing or shameful or incriminating to bring out into the light of day. And so we hide those undesirable parts of our person, and hope that we’ll never be found out. But here’s the truth: You’ve been found out. God already knows. He knows your past, your present, your future, your thoughts, your behavior, your motivations, your desires,…
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Is God Really Good?
How many of us fully understand the truth that we are unconditionally loved? Unconditional love is very foreign to us. We can define it but we never fully give it nor get it from anyone but God. Only God can teach this truth through us to our children. Do you feel the tension as you grapple with the truth that love can be unconditional and still insist on change. God loves us just like we are but too much to leave us in these selfish patterns. His love insists that we grow in our ability to truly trust Him more. Trust allows Him to make us more holy…
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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…
