Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” - John 14:1-4 Father, I lift my friend before You.  We look toward the new year.  It waits expectantly, like a bride, just outside the chapel doors of tomorrow morning.  Looking back over our shoulders we can see Your beautiful fingerprints shaping so much of this past year.  At the same time, there are photographs in our minds - images that bring sadness and grief.  Father, in obedience to Your Word, we thank You both in and for, the good and what we perceive as bad, trusting that what the enemy intended for evil, You will work it all f...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” - 2 Corinthians 10:5 Lord, I lift my friend before You.   The circumstances of their life and the condition of the world can feel so overwhelming.   The intensity of the battle feels to be heating up.   Lord, strengthen and comfort them to be able to stand firm and walk by faith.   Prevent their feet from stumbling and their heart from straying.   Tune their ears to hear Your voice above the din.   May the Word of God they have purposed to hide in their heart be a source of strength in this season, that they wouldn’t have to muster up more energy or courage, but that Your Word within them would arise and come to life, providing the necessary added strength and comfort they need to remain strong in their faith.   May every reading of Y...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “And give thanks FOR everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” - Ephesians 5:20 (emphasis mine). Lord, this is a hard verse.  I Thessalonians 5:18 is much easier to accept which says, “Be thankful IN all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus” (emphasis mine). We can conceive of thanking You while we are IN a season of suffering or pain, but the thought of thanking You FOR it is quite another.  How do we scrape up the wherewithal to praise and thank You for the very things we have dreaded and prayed would never happen?  How do we thank You for the lost job, the bad diagnosis, the drug addiction of a child, the betrayal, the debt or the death?  These are such hard things, Lord.   We often feel like a child that is fearful of needles.  We are sick and want desperately to get better, but we are terrified of shots.  What happens ins...

CONFESSION: Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father!   Lord, I had an eye opening moment at the grocery store yesterday.  The store was busy and my cart was full with a vast array of holiday and specialty foods that I rarely buy.  The Christmas music playing was particularly annoying and unusually loud.  I was feeling overwhelmed and my irritation was rising.  A tinge of resentment crossed my mind as I wondered why the responsibility always fell solely and squarely in my lap to organize and pull together family events.   Feeling the pressure and the weight of the obligatory labor and the earned exhaustion that I knew would be forthcoming, I glanced casually at the older gentleman who was walking toward me.  My cart was shockingly full, but his cart had maybe five sad, little items in it.  He may have had plans to spend Christmas at his daughter’s home, or these few things may have been last minute items he needed for a Chris...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father!   “They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!" - 2 Timothy 3:5 (NLT) Lord, it has been a chaotic season for most of us.  The to-do list, challenges and responsibilities pull at us from all directions.  Our tendency is to be drawn to the things that shout the loudest.  Father, in the din, help us to not miss Your still, small voice that calls us into intimacy with You.  In the busyness of preparation to celebrate Your birth, help us to not miss the whole point of the celebration.  How unfortunate it would be to accomplish the technical aspects of a visual celebration without truly celebrating in our heart - to have an appearance of worship - going through the motions - while our minds are on the to-do list and the merry-go-round of chores.  Going through the motions does not bring the peace we desperately need.  It...

CONFESSION: Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father!   “Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” - Isaiah 53:4-5   Lord, of late I find myself struggling with receiving what I have not earned.  With some recent medical tests, the costs are mounting and I feel uneasy, even guilty, that our hard-earned money is being spent solely on me.  There is no way, with the current busyness of my life, for me to take on a job to offset the costs.  Even if I had the time, I don’t have the wherewithal to do so.  I find myself wanting to pay for it all out of a bank account set up before we were married.  All of our finances are commingled now, so it is silly, but somehow it feels less selfish to pay for it all from...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “And Moses said unto God, ‘Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?’”-  Exodus 3:11-12.  Lord, the older I get the more I am convinced that we are all broken people.  Whether our brokenness is physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, we all have “stuff” that we deal with.  The invisibility of our neighbors’ frailties makes us feel alone, less than and unusable for anything of value.  Our insecurities cause us to believe that we are far better suited to serve doing something menial than something meaningful.. Moses struggled with this.  One of the greatest and most powerfully used men in biblical history felt inferiority.  When told he would go before Pharaoh as Your messenger on behalf of the children of Israel, Moses said, “Please, Lord, I'm not a good speaker. I've never been a good speaker, and I'm not now, even thoug...