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Healing Words

Healing Words

In his book, Simple Faith, Charles Swindoll notes: “Colors fade. Shorelines erode. Temples crumble. Empires fall. But “a word fitly spoken” endures.  The Bible has a lot to say about words. Proverbs 15:1 says for instance: “A soft answer turns away wrath; But a harsh word stirs up anger. “

Sacrificial Love

Sacrificial Love

Throughout the Bible, God’s people are instructed to stop and recall what God did for them. Psalm 105 is one such instance. It is a song of remembrance of God’s goodness to his people. The Psalmist captures how God directed, provided for and protected the Israelites throughout their history. And as believers in the 21st Century, we can look back and see how God’s plan…

Living in Unity

Living in Unity

As Jesus approached his trial, death and resurrection, his greatest concern was for the unity of his followers. He prayed for his community of disciples then and in the future, including us today.  That means he prayed for me, and for you.  Specifically, he prayed that we would experience complete unity and be perfectly one.  Jesus shared that Communities of Faith best show God’s love to the world when we live in unity.

God Remembers

God Remembers

Mother’s Day conjures up images of breakfast in bed, bouquets of flowers and special meals surrounded by grateful children.  Yet this is not always the way it is. Mother’s Day can also be filled with complicated emotions.  Perhaps you are grieving the recent loss of your mother or child, or maybe you are estranged from your children, or you desire to have a child, but things have not worked out as you had hoped.

Spring Has Sprung

Spring Has Sprung

After a somewhat dreary winter, it is wonderful to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell the colors, sounds, textures and flavors of spring. No matter what else is happening around us, springtime brings a sense of newness, vitality and hope. This transition from winter to spring should remind us that no season lasts forever. 

Growing in Community

Growing in Community

It is no secret that millions of Americans are suffering from loneliness. There has been an increasing sense of isolation for many since the COVID-19 lockdown. In 2024, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) found that 30% of adults reported feeling lonely at least once a week.  Perhaps you have felt lonely at some point, maybe you have not, but many around you continue to struggle daily with the search for meaning in their daily lives.

God Surrounds Us

God Surrounds Us

At the age of 6, I summoned sufficient courage to ride a bicycle beyond the protective fence surrounding my home.  As I rode past the neighbor’s gate, two huge menacing dogs slipped through the gate and began to chase after me.  I was terrified, and began to cry as they charged at me, barking ferociously.  Quivering and afraid, I stopped peddling and closed my eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

Love Your Enemies

Love Your Enemies

Conflict will happen at some point in any human interaction. If you exist in a community, it is only a matter of time before someone offends you, abuses you, mistreats you, curses you or hates you. Perhaps, right here in the workplace, you have experienced an offense.  The world says, “An eye for an eye,” but Jesus commands that when confronted by these enemies of the soul, love is the appropriate response.

Finding Your Kerith Ravine

Finding Your Kerith Ravine

So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. ( I Kings 17:5-6)

A community garden can be a wonderful therapeutic space for members of any community.  It is a space where members of a community gather to savor the beauty of God’s beautiful earth. It’s a place of serenity, where one can reflect and connect with one’s inner self. It is a place where neighbors who may not even know one another well, share easy smiles as they observe the birds chirping contentedly around their feeders, and where flowers explode in their myriad shapes, colors and scents. It is a space where one can escape from the stresses that are ever present in daily life…

God Loves You

God Loves You

It’s February and love is in the air.  Many people are already busy searching for the perfect Valentine’s Day gift or experience.  But Valentine’s Day isn’t for everyone.  There are millions who are excluded on this day of love. The truth is that sometimes we adults make love much more complicated than it ought to be. For instance, pinned to my bedroom wall is a simple work of art that my son made in second grade. 

Water to Wine

Water to Wine

Weddings are wonderful events. Two people fall in love and come together to be united in holy matrimony.  The new couple step out as one unit, ready for whatever the future might bring.  We plan carefully for these weddings, paying excruciating attention to every detail, and yet as we all know, there is always that unplanned moment that becomes a permanent part of everyone’s wedding story.

He Knows the Future

He Knows the Future

It’s a New Year, and I have an important question for you? “Do you know what will happen over the next 12 months?”  I must confess that I don’t know what will happen, and it does not really matter that I don’t, because I know the one who does.  He is the Almighty, the One that promised to give his people, Israel, a “hope and a future”, and now extends the same promise to those who believe in Him.

In the Desert

In the Desert

The word of God did not come to any of the seven powerful men mentioned in Luke 3.  It did not come to Tiberius Caesar, it did not come to Pontius Pilate, it did not come to Herod, or Philip the tetrarchs of Galilee and Iturea.  It did not come to Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene.  The word of God did not even come to Annas, the only high priest who was privileged to enter into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies. The “word of God came to John son of Zachariah.”