THE TROUBLE WITH FEAR “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.” – Mark 13:7-8. Fear is all around us. Just turn on the evening news and pull out a stopwatch.  How many seconds does it take into the broadcast before some juicy, fear-inducing tidbit comes rolling off the anchor’s tongue? How many terrifying, anxiety producing posts do you happen across every day on social media? Then there are terrifying things we expose ourselves to intentionally in movies, books, video games and such.  How about frightening rumors or gossip, let alone a devastating diagnosis, personal tragedy or trauma?  There is a reason the words, “Do not fear” occur 365 times in scripture.  It’s because we need to hear ...

LIVING OUT YOUR EXODUS – Part 1:  THE ARMS OF MOSES “As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.” – Exodus 17:11 Any time I read this passage of scripture, my mind reflects back to scenes of Charlton Heston in His iconic role as Moses in the 1956 movie, “The Ten Commandments.” With ominous skies in the background and the wind billowing his dramatically highlighted hair, his upraised arms were pivotal to the victory of the Israelites in their battle with the Amalekites. Every time his arms became too tired to remain raised, the Amalekites would gain the upper hand. When his arms went back up, the Israelites would regain their footing and prevail in battle. The position of the arms of Moses was so critical to their success, that Aaron and Hur were drafted to take on the role of lifting the exhausted arms of Moses. God often uses symbolic events in our lives to hint at deeper truths....

“LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.” – Isaiah 33:2 Father, for most of us we can’t imagine getting up in the morning and heading out into society without first brushing our teeth and washing our face.  We can’t imagine leaving the house without first emptying our bladder, taking a shower and exchanging our rumpled jammies for clothes that don’t look slept in. For many of us we can’t imagine heading out the door or walking into our place of business without first having a bite of something to eat and at least a few sips of our morning coffee.  We need its warmth to ease us into a day of toil and it’s stimulating effects to lift our heavy eyelids and sullen mood.  We have grown accustomed to the side effects afforded us by our morning brew. Unless there is an emergency, we can’t imagine not doing these things, but so often we go out the door without first feeding our spirit and drinking in the wa...

“IT’S MORNING, SWEETHEART!” “I will praise the Lord no matter what happens. I will constantly speak of his glories and grace.  I will boast of all his kindness to me. Let all who are discouraged take heart.  Let us praise the Lord together and exalt his name.” – Psalm 34:1-3. Worship is a choice.  This morning the tiredness of this old body and the concerns on my heart offer distractions, but today the holdouts of my flesh will be allowed no vote on the matter. It is very early.  I look out the window.  Other than the distant points of starlight, the sky is awash in blackness.  I hear our little dog beginning to stir in his bed, and I whisper, “It’s nighttime, sweetheart. Go to sleep.”  He settles back in and let’s out a relaxing sigh as he drifts off. Ever so quietly, the Father then whispers to my heart, “It’s not nighttime. It’s morning, sweetheart.”  I glance over at the clock and it’s 4:43 AM.  I had looked out the window, and se...

THE TRAPPINGS OF LIFE “Prefer my life-disciplines over chasing after money, and God-knowledge over a lucrative career. For Wisdom is better than all the trappings of wealth; nothing you could wish for holds a candle to her.” – Proverbs 8:10-11 MSG CONFESSION:  The Lord is talking to me about the "trappings of life" this morning.  When I use the phrase, "the trappings of life,” I usually think about the "stuff" we accumulate in our lives, because we are blessed.   Originally, the word "trapping" meant a decoration a person would attach to their horse's bridle or saddle as a statement about the rider's power and privilege in life.  By global standards, those who make minimum wage in the United States are considered upper class.  We may not consider ourselves wealthy, but we certainly have our trappings that make statements about our affluence to the world — a car, nice hairstyle, clean clothing, hole-less shoes, let alone shoes at ...

DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (A long one, but worth it) “And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” – Exodus  20:1-2 My husband’s side of the family is chock full of characters. There isn’t a mean one in the bunch. One of my favorite habits adopted by the men in the family is their response to direction or correction offered by one of the others. Tongue in cheek, the response is an ornery, “DON’T TELL ME!” These wise men are also, most assuredly, wise guys. Stick with me. I’m going somewhere with this. It’s human nature to bristle at correction or unsolicited offers of direction. Even though, “Don’t tell me” is said in jest, there is a thin vein of truth running through it that exposes mankind’s bent of resistance. We don’t want to be told what to do, even if we know what is being said is for our benefit. And the same holds true in our relationship with God, sometimes. We are given directi...

THE END OF THE ROLL “Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18 HCSB For me, it was like nails on a chalkboard to walk into the bathroom and see that tiny tail at the very end of the roll of toilet paper just hanging there. There were at least a half dozen rolls, mere inches away, under the sink, but the PEOPLE living in my house were preoccupied with other things. We had had polite chats about being thoughtful to others by replacing the roll, but my repeated lectures had fallen on deaf ears. Then there were the dirty shirts that would land just outside the laundry basket, shoes strewn on the rug and the backpacks that mysteriously landed in the middle of the entry hall floor. My favorite was the dirty glass that made it all the way to the dishwasher — except the last five inches, of course! Does anyone else feel my pain? These things bugged the living daylights out of me. They still do to a certain extent, but m...

THE VIEW FROM INSIDE THE BAG “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” – Romans 12:3 My husband and I popped into Starbucks a few weeks back to grab a cup with “The Coffee Boys”— a great group of fellow retirees from my husband’s career days. We grabbed a table outside. It was surrounded on two sides by slightly smoked glass. On the other side of the glass there were tables where people were eating lunch.  I had my back against one wall of glass. The other, perpendicular wall was about six feet away and directly to my right. Behind the glass was a woman sitting in a chair mirroring my position. Between the glare and the slight smokiness of the glass, I could not clearly see her face, but what WAS clear was that she was thoroughly enjoying her tacos. I glanced over periodically and could see ...

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:6-7 We have all seen that pitiful squirrel that darts in and out of traffic. Let’s call him, “Skip”. Skip makes his way half way into our lane, only to freeze in indecision. Meanwhile, we are still barreling our way toward him in our car. We don’t want to hit him, but we also don’t know if he will continue to make his way across the road, stand there frozen or go back. We see that a lot out here in the country. In our neck of the woods, traffic congestion is when we see more than two cars in a minute. On country roads, there is usually ample time to cross a road safely. Yet, it isn’t uncommon to see evidence on the side of the road of one of our furry friends who didn’t quite make it.  Why is that? Just imagin...

A PRAYER FOR THE DISCOURAGED “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin.” – Hebrews 4:15 Heavenly Father, I lift Your precious child who is reading this before You. As always, learning something new about You is rich and meaningful. But there are times when they are tired and weary and just want to cry. Sometimes it feels like they have struggled in this same area a thousand times and the path they are on seems endless. They do what they know to do to keep going, but they feel the hot breath of discouragement bearing down on the back of their neck. They are not sure what will happen first, whether their heart will beat out of their chest or their legs will collapse from exhaustion.    But they feel that they can’t go on much longer without help from You. Father, Jesus lived on the Earth, just like we do. In His 33 years He experienced every ...

“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD. And forgive us our trespasses, as we also have forgiven those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’” – Matthew 6:9-13 (The Lord’s Prayer) Have you ever wondered why smack dab in the middle of the Lord’s prayer, Jesus shifts the topic from seeking God’s will to asking for provision, then back to seeking God’s will?  It always seemed to me that “Give us today our daily bread” was tucked into the prayer, but that it always seemed a little bit out of place relative to the what was being requested of God before and after that sentence. It was almost as if to say, (please forgive the Ragamuffin paraphrase):   “Father, You are worthy of worship and our reverence. We want Your desires to be fulfilled, both in Heaven and on Earth. Please provide for our needs. Forgive us, as we have f...