Blessings
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Faith Under Pressure
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. One of my daughters recently wrote a long FaceBook post making this point very clear. Here is what Alycia Neighbours posted (and I share with her permission): So I’m going to preach y’all a sermon… Faith Under Pressure James 1:2-4 The Message (MSG) “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not…
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Grow Through What You Go Through
I saw this sign in Target recently and stopped to look at it for a while: Seems like this is the story of my life. As I stood there thinking about the message painted on the glass, I remembered how many times, when I’ve faced something really hard, I do not want to learn anything. I just want it over! But at the same time, when I think back to all the tough experiences I’ve lived through, I wouldn’t change any of them because each one has matured me and taught me more about God. I can’t imagine how I would’ve made it these “growing” seasons without Christ. He was…
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Prayer…a Different Perspective
If you are like me, you have read many books on prayer. Authors like T.W. Hunt, Jennifer Kennedy Dean, Henry Blackaby, Jim Cymbala and so many others have had powerful books published for our spiritual growth. You have probably done Bible studies on the topic of prayer. And if you have been a Christian for a while, you’ve prayed quite a bit. Although Jesus gives His disciples a pattern for prayer in the Gospels (Matthew 6:9-13 & Luke 11:2-4), there is no one way to pray. At different seasons in life and with different needs, we pray as our heart leads us. But one thing is true, we pray differently…
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Blessed in the Mess
If I asked you to describe your life right now, how would you respond? Would you include any of these words: difficult, overwhelming, disappointing, mysterious, painful, answerless, frustrating? If so, I so get it. But do you realize that amidst our mess God has blessings for us? The Lord showed me this one morning as I drove to work after completing a 3 day fabulous, but exhausting, conference (the biggest leadership event we host). Several things had occurred during those 3 days that weren’t part of the plan, so the stress of coordinating and hosting this conference grew beyond my expectation. During the conference, my mother (who had dementia) had…
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Loving the Word
Have you ever hunted for something a long time before finding it? Did you rejoice and appreciate what you found? God impressed this upon me during my month at the beach last fall. Here’s how He spoke. Shells were few on the Gulf Coast shore last year. Since this is my favorite thing to do at the beach, I continued to hunt and hope. Thinking a beautiful shell would be in the very next wave. Even though I came away almost empty each time, I continued to look. Isn’t that how it is sometimes when we read God’s Word? During some seasons we just seem to come up empty, but…
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Beach Blessings Big and Small
Every time I go to the beach, God uses the time to teach me principles about who He is and how He works. In fact, because He is so faithful to do this, I have begun looking forward to each trip in part, for what He will teach me, and what He will allow me to teach others. I anticipate He will teach and I am ready to learn. One of my favorite things to do at the beach is look for seashells. I LOVE shells and our home attests to that! I comb the shore for daily treasures. Because the shells were not so plentiful or as large on…
