Rethinking God

Happy Birthday to me and my twin sister! Last year I posted some pictures of us when we were cute…You can see them here.   Anyway, last night I spoke to the fifth and sixth graders at my church about joy. Sometimes God just takes hold of me as I speak and shakes me hard.…

Yesterday I wrote about how easy isn’t necessarily better and how Jesus told us we would have trouble, but we could have peace in Him. Today as I drove my kids to school I wondered about peace in Christ. I was stressing out about things I could not control – schedules that blossomed, puppies that…

While I was in high school, I learned about a great Christian band called Jars of Clay. They have a song called Worlds Apart and one line has been reverberating in my heart this weekend… It says, “…what I need and what I believe are worlds apart.” Aren’t we blessed that God knows what we…

Yesterday I had a guest post Known By a New Name on the Encouragement Cafe blog. I’d love it if you would visit their place and check out my post. Now down to business: 2012 and my year to “GO” has been frustrating to say the least. Frustrating because I am allowing my inner dialog…

Stories. Our lives are full of them. Interwoven stories that bind us to others, divide us from some, and leave impressions on our hearts. Stories that are not mine to tell, but that I live out. I live my part of supportive wife, encouraging friend, loving daughter-in-law, praying sister, admiring daughter, and the list goes…

I thought I had today together. I had thought about it and planned it in my head and then it happened. I realized I double booked myself. I was getting my bag ready for church and looked at my appointment card. “Monday?!?” I shook my head. “I thought my appointment was on Tuesday.” Monday morning…

I have an attitude problem. I am cranky, easily irritated, and downright frustrated. UGH! I think if only my kids would behave, if my husband would meet my every need (even when I don’t know what it is I need), if health wellness and prosperity marked my whole extended family, if my dreams and longings…

We sat outside in the unseasonably warm December sun. I sat on a folding chair reading Psalm 97 aloud as my kids sat on the stone patio. “Mommy,” my 8-year-old furrowed her brow. “I have a question.” “Sure,” I nodded, “what is it babe?” “I don’t understand how God loves people and then sends them…

We evangelical Christians don’t get the idea of a high priest. We nominally nod when we think of Jesus as our high priest, but we don’t really get it. I still don’t think I get it very well. Other Christian denominations may have a better understanding. Those with popes and bishops have a hierarchy someone…

The joy of Christmas comes wrapped in ordinary. How often do we look for joy in the extraordinary when it is the ordinary God uses to wrap true joy? Jesus a babe wrapped in ordinary clothes, placed in an ordinary feed trough. Immanuel, God with us, wrapped in flesh, made from dust. Yet often we…