15: 5-8 “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make…
Abiding: Do you hesitate?
Jesus imagined a life beyond the altar call. A desire to follow Him for more than just getting to Heaven. In John 15, Jesus creates a picture of what that life looks like. He is the Vine, and we are the branches. We are to abide. In one another. What? Jesus, Son of God, Word…
Are you blocking you?
John 8:32 “And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Ever think you could be blocking you? Right. Me, neither! The above verse tends to be a crowd favorite. Who doesn’t want to slap that verse on a coffee mug and sing a praise song? But the reality underneath–one that…
Locking Eyes with Grace
John 8 recounts a time when Jesus was interrupted by a group of Pharisees as he taught in the temple. They had a woman who was caught in the act of adultery, and according to the law of Moses, she should be stoned to death. Also, according to this law, they needed two witnesses (v….
Holy Face Plants and Bearing Real Fruit–the glorious mess of being a disciple
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body…
What else happens…..
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 So I spent a year imagining how the garden in the front yard of our new house could be transformed. Hedges, bushes, and small trees were overgrown with all sorts of…
The great switch
This post is somewhat of a departure. It is a prayer following a time when God shone His perfect light in areas of my life that needed to change. This is for all those who are being held captive by false thinking–who need to quit believing lies and replace them with Jesus, the Truth, Who…
To all the runners and hiders
We can’t hide from God. That is Good News for all us runners and hiders.
God’s “OK” and ours
God’s OK and ours is not the same. When I reach out for peace, I cry out to God for some type of homeostasis–LORD, take me back to the way things were. Before, you know. Everything changed. Take me back to the time when I could hug my dad without a nagging feeling in the…
When God is quiet and the world is noisy
My husband didn’t put fifty-one candles on the cake. He is a smart man. Instead of setting up my classroom for the new school year this August, I’m home, having taken a leap of faith, quitting my job, and waiting on God. He has shifted our family in the context of national and international unrest…
When following Jesus hurts….
Left on their own, vine branches harbor disease and grow spindly, then die. They head off in wrong directions. God’s good nature is to prevent that. But, sometimes it hurts.
We are pruned.
What blocks victory
There’s a stretch of time between God calling Gideon a mighty warrior and Gideon acting like one. Gideon had questions. Gideon needed proof. An angel of the LORD met him and Gideon made excuses. Perhaps that is what happens when a culture drifts away from intimacy with God. They forget Who God is. What He…
Relentless Hope
I have nonChristian friends who talk. Who express their wonderment at how any person could still believe in a God of love and mercy after the year 2020. As I chat with them, we wade through this tension between the circumstances of the world and the challenge they present to the hope we are called…
How do Introverts become Bold?
Be bold. Be confident in the gifts you’ve been given. Don’t be afraid to use them. Don’t. Hold. Back. I’ve heard them all. OK extroverts. Me, speaking in front of people? Praying out loud? That’s me being bold. That’s me coming a few clicks short of a nervous breakdown in order to wield this gift…
What the blind beggar knew…
Are you stuck in your spiritual walk? Modern events stagnating your faith? Find out one key ingredient to a deeper walk with Jesus.
If you say so Jesus
Luke 5:1-11. Jesus told Simon to put his nets down into the deep water. And, Peter’s response was a reluctant one. “Master, we have worked all night long, but we have caught nothing.” Um, Jesus. I just did that. You actually saw me cleaning up my empty nets before you borrowed my boat. But, after…
Heavenly Sigh
What happens when the Great I am sighs? What happens when the One Who knows us so intimately, who holds time itself within His grasp—takes a moment, looks up, and sighs? By the time Jesus was called upon to heal a man who couldn’t hear and had a speech impediment (NRSV), he had already healed…
Potato Salad, Payday and the Kingdom of Heaven
Oh, behold the church potluck dinner. You think it’s a gathering of people bringing food. To share. To do that churchy word “fellowship”. Let’s get real. Bubbling up underneath the surface is a pile of people sizing each other up based on their potato salad. You know I’m right. There is nothing more horrendous than…
Evangelism for Introverts: Isaiah 55 and Walmart
Isaiah 55 has been somewhat of a war cry for me this year. I love when the deep mystery of faith reveals itself in practical ways–when I see played out in vivid reality that His ways are higher than mine. Usually I’m not so much of a girl person. Or a crowd person. But, this…
False Humility: Closeted Pride
I watched a snippet of a video from a self-proclaimed prophet the other day. What strikes me as odd is the widespread declaration of blessing and breakthrough on whole groups of people, without the call to repentance or discipline. Or humility. And I wonder if blessing without discipline is really what the American culture needs…
Ken, Doris, and Defiant Faith
So, asking for a friend. What do you do when you have a nervous breakdown in the middle of praise and worship? What do you do when you want to stop crying, but, for the love of God, all you can do is see your soon to graduate sons running towards you as toddlers, as…
Sporkfaith
Dear God,
Please keep me from being the spork of the Christian world.
The real fast which cleanses
People pay good money for therapists to help weed out the junk in their lives. That’s great. Or, you can simply raise a teenager. You will spend less time and money to discover your spiritual, physical, and emotional limitations. In the last few days I’ve asked one son to quit coloring on the dog with…
A Confession Isaiah 53:5
Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. Upon Him was the punishment that made us whole. Whole– complete, lacking or wanting nothing. Nothing left undone. God’s sacrifice of His son Jesus didn’t almost…
Scattered Rags Isaiah 30:19-22
The other day, my teenage son sat down on the couch and tearfully poured out his heart about the approaching shift from high school to college. So many lasts. So many firsts. And I wonder how things will turn out. If my husband and I said enough, did enough, held on tight enough, let them…
Mercy, Target, and Back to School….
If anyone wants to have a taste of Hades, just go to Target during the back to school sale.There is no fire or brimstone, but there are people acting like all of life depends on getting the .50 pack of crayons for their baby. I almost got ran over by a woman pushing a shopping…
Cheez Whiz Jesus
There was a time I’d been lulled into feckless slumber as a Christian. Maybe it’s the American church. Maybe it was my being over-churched, equating religious marching in place with an abundant life. The mainstream denomination I attended never spoke of the Holy Spirit, much less His gifts and power. But, all the other Christians…
Be careful what you justify
My husband lit his front yard on fire. Twice. I drove a school bus into a hospital overhang. My sons both did backflips from a thirty foot high branch into water. By the no trespassing sign. Whether it’s fear, boredom, or peer pressure, us good people who call ourselves Christians will do all sorts of…
It’s complicated…
I am what most people call geographically challenged. Five minutes and I will get lost. It has gotten better with GPS. But, still, I am one of those people in the parking lot scratching their head because they can’t find their car. And, sometimes my walk with God is a lot like that—complicated and all…
I’m gushing
So, while I was busy working on my vertigo in Alaska, the fabulous JennyLynn at JennyLynn Author/Book Blogger nominated me for a Liebster Award. This award is aimed at recognizing new blogging talent. (I mean, the Pioneer Woman and Jen Hatmaker did not start out as household names, and there was a time in United…
What washes up: False Narratives
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!”Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. Mark 4:39 Part of what stinks so much about personal storms is that a lot of your junk gets kicked up and thrown in your face. The sin, the habits that…
Hokey Pokey
When I was in junior high, my mom thought it best to put me in roller skates and push me out into the middle of a rink. I was shy. An introvert. And, I needed to be coaxed out of my shell. What better way to do that than to throw a party and have…
Storm warnings and the ocean of faith
Sometimes it’s our sin that leads us to desert places where we feel distant from God. Other times, it’s not sin, but faithfulness that leads us to a place where waves and storms threaten to overtake us. What does the Christian do when we say “yes” to God, and end up someplace overwhelming? In my…
Ugly crying and the desert of doubt
There’s a lonely place devoid of spiritual awakening. A barren place of my own undoing. And I know I’m not alone in acknowledging the desert. It’s just that a lot of Christians don’t want to stare that reality down. Last week I had to sit in a doctor’s office and hear results from an MRI…
Cow Babies and Dog Armies
Hey! Know what a cow does when she’s in labor? Nope? Me neither. So imagine my surprise when my friend said: “Look at her udders. And listen to her baying. And watch out. Because she will charge your car if she’s scared of coyotes.” My friend is part of a farming family of ten. Her…
The Weak and the Least
Gideon would lead the Israelites into military victory. He would become a commanding leader who had guts enough to tear down pagan altars and incur the wrath of enemies. But, he just didn’t know it yet. When we first meet Gideon, there has been a multi-layered starvation in Israel. First, the Midianites kept destroying their…
Religious Crust and the Walking Dead
“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” Luke 24:5 I remember the day I fake gave my life to Christ. I was at a church camp and the speaker was really loud and seemed to specialize in how awful hell was. I was a fornicator….
It never really makes it better…
And I was too busy to prepare myself for the tidal wave of emotional pain that would wash over me. It was just a college campus tour or two. But, when I saw my sons walk onto campus, towards the next chapter in their lives, it was like two seeds being blown away from me, slipping…
Forgiveness and the Flying Boulder
Dear random Catholic priest who was just trying to perform a wedding ceremony. In Latin. When I was sitting next to my best friend in high school. Who, as it turns out, can do an amazing impersonation of a priest performing a wedding ceremony in Latin. I. Am. Sooo. Sorry. Also, my apologies to the…
Four easy steps to open heart surgery
I’m often tempted to immediately dismiss any person who proclaims that Christianity is easy. That taking up your cross and following Jesus is a simple feat. There are books and podcasts and flyers stuck on windshields that mislead people into thinking that an all transforming relationship with God can be done in three easy steps….
The “S” word
I turn into a self-righteous hypocrite when I study the Old Testament. Don’t these people get it? God is holy! They go for a while in their obedience, and then they get soft in their wealth and military victories and start coloring outside the lines of God’s commands. Morons! Oh wait. I have idols in…
Help for Spiritual Weenies
Have a difficult time being strong and courageous? This might help even the most dedicated spiritual weenies!
A Girl and Her God 