Lately, I have felt more like the tree on the right, withered, dry, brittle lacking any life. Sometimes we let things, circumstances, and even people drain us of our vitality. What might have taken days, weeks, and months to turn us into a shriveled mess in an instant can be changed around. When I turn …
Continue reading “Fruit or no fruit? Which tree do you most resemble?”
Did you know? Johann Sebastian Bach fathered 20 children, only of which 10 survived, all having tragically died before adulthood. In total, he lost three children to his first wife and seven children to his second wife. Illness, plagues, and the limited medical care of the times meant many didn’t make it past their young …
Continue reading “What is one to do when one’s heart becomes troubled?”
So often we fancy ourselves as secure and think we can go it all alone, but when God hides His face from us because we choose to go it on our own, our soul cries out to Him. “Lord, help me! Rescue me!” PICK ME UP AND TURN ME AROUND (Psalm 107). In Psalm 30 …
Don’t we all worry and think negative thoughts at times? “Negative worry is imagining your future with God not showing up “(from Worrying with God by Steve and Wendy Backlund). Isn’t that ridiculous to think? Perhaps because worry is based on past experiences in life, right? But what if we imagined only positive thoughts instead …
On a Sunday morning in 2019, my friend Martin saw musical notes rising from the top of my head. He would pen his vision on a 3-hole punch lined paper, and later give it to me at the end of the service. “Take your flute everywhere with you, Bill” he said. Spelled in large letters …
“While there is a caution born out of wisdom, our challenge is to spot the counterfeit — whatever comes from the fear of man. This kind of fear is an affliction of the heart. It causes us to silence courage by wondering what someone will think of us if we make a bold move. Father, …
Continue reading “Spotting the counterfeit … whatever comes from the fear of man”
“You of little faith, why are you so afraid? Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.” (Matthew 8:26) Excerpts herein are from Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest for August 12, The Theology of Rest. “When we are in fear we can do nothing …
Continue reading “Why are you so afraid, you of little faith?”
Do you let your words of doom and failure defeat you in life? Your words, then, do not agree with God. This may be a challenge to your old self, but it is also a choice to not speak them. Speak only the end result of what you desire. Don’t counteract that which you declare …
Continue reading “Be made new in the attitude of your minds”
Several months ago, I was going through a tough few months, even struggling to write. And then I read this verse one morning – “This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). But I didn’t feel much like rejoicing, and I didn’t feel much like …
“You’re my place of quiet retreat; I wait for your Word to renew me” (Psalm 119:114, MSG) The Bible says in John 14:27 “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do …
