Latest Posts

Save Your Photos Day: When Shame Blots You Out of the Picture

thanks, Edie Look towards him and shine with joy; no longer hang your heads in shame.Psalm 34:5, New English Bible Hello, readers. I am breaking tradition today and sending you this post a day early. According to the National Day Calendar, today is Save Your Photos Day. In a recent conversation with a friend, I was reminded of the power of shame to blot out our faces, to erase the photos where we once smiled… Read More

The Days of the Battle Are Numbered

for SW For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening (1 Samuel 17:16). Dear One,  The battle seems relentless. The attacks are cruel and unfair. You don’t want to ask, but you must ask, Why does God let it go on? Where is the victory? I see your shoulders drooped low with weariness. You have fought long.  And those hands. Strong hands, loving hands, serving hands. Hands that washed… Read More

He Helps the Helpless

One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get… Read More

Emotional Temptation

Come down from the cross (Matthew 27:40). We don’t often think of Calvary in terms of the emotional temptation of Jesus. But if we listen closely to those insulting dagger words thrown at Jesus by the chief priests, teachers of the law and elders, we will recognize the voice of the deceiver. Just as he challenged Jesus’ lordship in the wilderness during the famous temptation recounted in Matthew 4, he can be heard in the… Read More

Good Work

God saw all that he had made—and it was very good! (Genesis 1:31, NET) And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done (Genesis 2:2). bzzzzzz! bzzzzz! bzzzzzz! My phone practically vibrated right out of my pocket as a flood of messages came in all at once. I was out of town, but my children and… Read More

The Search for Stability

God's words are like stepping stones through the landscape of life. Trust in the Lord and do what is right! Settle in the land and maintain your integrity! Then you will take delight in the Lord, and he will answer your prayers. Commit your future to the Lord! Trust in Him and He will act on your behalf. He will vindicate you in broad daylight, and publicly defend your just cause (Psalm 37:3-6, NET). In the… Read More

The God Who Fulfills Promises With His Own Hand

O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart…You spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled it this day. Now therefore, O Lord, keep… what you have promised to him saying, “You shall not lack…” (2 Chronicles 6:14-16). I am thinking deeply these days about how my Father… Read More

The Power of Praise

I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34:1). The rhythmic thump of the drum reverberated off the dehydrated African hills, beckoning the children to come. I stood under an acacia tree, one hand beating the cowhide surface with a homemade stick tipped in old tire rubber, the other crested over my eyes searching the horizon. Like ladybugs the boys and girls clustered, scrambling down dusty… Read More

Leaping Over Walls

What wall are you facing today? For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness. For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. Psalm 18:28-29 I have found comfort in this promise in some of the hardest places on earth. Facing life's challenges can seem like looking up at an immovable wall. Islam is certainly a wall, as… Read More

When the Ground Gives Way Beneath You

I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me (Psalm 69:2). The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior! (2 Samuel 22:47) The sand sucked away beneath my feet as the waves pushed in and pulled out on the seashore where I stood. The ground was literally giving way from beneath my feet.  Looking… Read More