Relationships are hard work. Ask anyone who’s in one or trying to maintain one. They require everything we’ve got and at times, even what we don’t have. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not into “maintaining” but, instead, “growing” my relationships. I don’t just want to “get by”, I want my relationships to thrive.
But how do we do that? What can we do to nurture and build those we love and therefore strengthen our relationships instead of tear them down?
I received a phone call in early September that after 10 years of fighting brain cancer, my sister, Teresa had passed away.
Her journey over the last few years had been especially challenging and I hated that I lived so far away from her. Please continue to keep our family in your prayers and her immediate family, especially. They are dear and experiencing a tremendous loss and time right now. Thanks for all your love and prayers.
I have many things to be grateful for and of the lot, is the triumph that I raised three children; a daughter and twin sons. They are now grown with lives of their own, in which they are doing quite well. From the bounty of their relationships, I also cherish a son in law and grandson!
The day was marked in time. The moment planned from the foundation of the world. “Behold, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world!” John’s words rang from eternity and into the hearing of all those surrounding his revelation of Jesus Christ at the Jordan. [John 1: 29-32]
It’s been said, music is the universal language. I don’t know who coined the phrase, but it appears to carry a lot of truth! Artists can travel around the world singing to those who don’t speak their language and still be just as powerful as they are in their native land. Why? Because song has power!
“My God’s not dead, He’s surely alive. He’s living on the inside roaring like a lion.”
This was a song written by Daniel Bashta made popular by David Crowder Band and Newsboys. A song of revival and spiritual revolution.
When I think about all the revolutions in the earth and our country, they started with a voice! A declaration of sorts.
God is returning community to ministry. The way it began in the book of Acts in the Bible. Actually, in Genesis. If you look at it, God always began with an individual or a family; Abraham, Noah. A community of people or person who loved and served Him. With these, He would change the world!
I have always been astounded at what is important to God. That’s why I hate religion! And I believe that’s why Jesus hated religion too. It was because of how unlike God religion was in Jesus’ day. Always has been and still is today!
I’ve done some stupid things in my life.
Some I laugh at and some, I don’t realize just how stupid until I am living in the regret of what I did later in life and it is quite painful. You see, the biblical truth of “you reap what you sow” is a natural law as well as spiritual but when it comes home, the pain is deep and sometimes irrevocable.
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is in Luke 18. It is a beautiful picture of how God sees things. A beautiful picture of His heart of mercy and a stark reminder that without it, we are all sunk!
