Last Tuesday, in 'Oceans Deep, Part 6', we saw that God doesn't penalize us when we aren't quite ready to take that extra step in faith and abandon our safety nets. Nonetheless, the rewards of taking the opportunities He gives us to grow our faith are beyond...
My husband has lots of wonderful skills and takes care of very important aspects of running this household, including cleaning up the messes I create in the kitchen. He is not, however, comfortable preparing those kitchen "messes"... Yesterday, he had to reformat his...
Last week, in "Ultimate Rest" Part 4, I told the story of how God delivered me from one addiction, but left me struggling with the other for many, many years. Just like in the initial conquest of Canaan, God had left some "remaining nations," and through this...
One of the big things I struggle with every time I'm going through trials is the question, ‘Why?' I'm sure I'm not alone in this, for it is innately human to want to understand things, and somehow, it makes what we're going through easier when we understand the ‘why'...
Last Thursday, in "Decorating for Christmas, Part 2", we saw when we look at a nutcracker, we can be reminded that Jesus is our "nutcracker", and we have access to this incomprehensible power simply by accepting His ultimate gift, the one we celebrate this Christmas....
"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." (2 Cor 12:9) We had been planning this particular trip for months....
"'Come now, let us settle the matter,' says the LORD. 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.'" (Isaiah 1:18) Everyone in North America knows exactly what I'm talking about when I say...
I noticed something as I watered the plants on my deck this morning. I noticed that although they were healthy, they were no longer pretty. They had become infected with weeds. Normally, every time I water the plants, I pull off the dead flower heads and pull up any...
Last Thursday, in "Understanding the 'Why', Part 1", we saw that though it makes it a lot easier to go through trials when we understand why, we can trust God to know why, even when we don't see it. We can take comfort in the fact that God is always in control. Is it...
In this series, we have seen that our ultimate rest comes from resting in Jesus, from giving Him all of our problems, our worries, our cares. But as we've seen through a study of the conquest of Canaan, this doesn't necessarily mean all of our problems will simply be...