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Do You Really Know How to Forgive?
I’ve written on this topic before and you can read Embrace God’s Forgiveness here, but I believe this true life experience written by one of my daughters, Alycia Neighbours (see bio below), will touch you deeply. Our girls get a love for animals from me, except theirs includes menageries of all kinds of animals, while my husband and I are a one dog at a time kind of pet owner! My grand animals have included not only MANY dogs, and a couple of cats, but also bearded dragons, guinea pigs, hamsters, goats, horses, donkeys, pigs, lizards, a snake, and all kinds of fish! Be blessed by reading Alycia’s post and…
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Settle In
I’m not sure how you feel about our country, or our global world, right now. With elections in the future, crime and violence, anger and hatred all over the news and filtering into whatever we watch, read or hear, we could just decide to go live on a tropical island somewhere away from it all! Tempting isn’t it? Definitely for this beach girl. The thing is, God has not put us here to run away. He has placed us here to make a difference. He actually has a plan for us, for our lives and He wants us where He has placed us. I read a post by Noe Garcia…
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Focus 2020
This time of year I am always watching for direction from the Lord on a theme or passage of scripture He wants to develop in me for the year ahead. As I was reading and preparing for teaching at an event in 2020, the topic for the weekend grabbed my attention. It’s based on Kay Arthur‘s study, “Lord, Give Me a Heart for You.“ Our key passage for the event is Ezekiel 36:26-27: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place my Spirit within you and cause…
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Indescribable Joy
Sometimes during the holidays I really miss not having parents to “go home to”, but I love being the parent my kids and grandkids come to for the holidays. Just once in a while I wish I still had parents too! Our last parent died in 2009, but it was several years before that when we stopped having a parent’s home to return to for family get togethers. So, holidays include both joy and a bit of sadness. Today I read Mark 12:24-25 a new way, “Jesus spoke to them, “Isn’t this the reason why you’re mistaken: you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God? For when they…
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The Silence is Broken Part 2
Last week we looked at how God ended the 400 years of silence. If you missed that post, first read Part 1 here. How did God speak to you last week? Did He reveal something about an issue you’ve been praying about? Did He remind you of something you had stopped praying about and had even maybe forgotten about? Has He been speaking and maybe it was so different from what you expected, you just ignored His words? As I focused on Mary’s response to her Lord, I started thinking: how obedient am I when I hear Him speak? Perhaps I’m finally hearing from God after a long period of…
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The Silence is Broken! Part 1
Each year when I read chronologically through the Bible, the period of 400 years of silence makes me so sad. I’m always so ready to open the New Testament and hear his voice speak again. But I did not have to wait as the Israelites did. The Old Testament ends with Malachi 4:5-6 telling us: “Look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.” Jesus is that promise of…
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Grab It While You Can
During our annual month long beach trip this year we had more cold, stormy, and windy days than normal for this time of year. But the last two days were especially beautiful and sunny. The water finally cleared up so we could see sharks and rays in the water from our balcony. And, as I walked on the beach those days, I could see the shells that were in the water. When there were strong winds blowing, the waves were crashing harder, and, of course, the water was much murkier. I’d not had many days of combing the shallow water for shells this trip, so, even though it was chilly,…
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When We Fall Down
Beach Lesson #2, 2019 One morning while sitting on the beach, I saw a women walking down the shoreline. But on her return trip back, she appeared somewhat unstable as she walked on the edge of the surf right in front of where we sat. I kept watching her, and sure enough, she fell and began rolling in the water unable to get up. My husband and I jumped up and ran over to help her stand up and fish her sunglasses out of the water. Once she was standing again, we asked her if she was okay. She said yes and, after we advised her to walk on the…
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Embrace God’s Faithfulness
This is last in a 4-part series on embracing God’s attributes. Here you can read part 1, part 2 and part 3 here. Everything that God has promised will come to pass. His faithfulness guarantees this fact. He does not lie. What He has said in the Bible about Himself is true. He will honor His promise that our sins will be forgiven and that we will live forever with Him. He will never leave us, no matter what. We are told in Deuteronomy 7:9, ”Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who…
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Embrace God’s Holiness
Today, in this 4-part series, I want us to look at how to embrace God’s holiness…not just know about it, but embrace it. You can read the first post here, on embracing God’s love and the second on here, about God’s forgiveness. Do you know what the most loved hymn is? As I was studying about God’s holiness I found out, it’s not Great is Thy Faithfulness or Rock of Ages. It’s Holy, Holy, Holy. There is something mysterious and wonderful about God’s holiness. I read, in Our Daily Bread(April 21, 1997), a story about a little animal called the ermine that lives in the forests of northern Europe and…
