Tagged: hope

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for the One who made the promise is trustworthy (Hebrews 10:23). 4:00 am Prayers! Our son has lost excessive amounts of blood through the donor site where the graft was taken and his hemoglobin levels are dangerously low (for you medical folks, it’s 4.1). He’s as white as the sheets he’s lying on. The doctor thought the hemoglobin count must be a mistake and did a retest but the number was accurate… 4:45am He is getting blood transfusions now.  1:30pm Second transfusion. Waiting for wound care team so we can determine if the bleeding has stopped… Don’t need blood donors as of yet… 3:30 pm The team just started the procedure. We were gently asked to… Read More

You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them. Psalm 89:9 Again and again and again Lord You bring this word to me lately… And now it is Anne’s opening word tonight at prayer, which I barely made it to because of the enemy. My heart cry is, not just more of You, Jesus. All of You. -from my journal around 6:30 pm on November 6, 2019. From my journal entry to friends and family on the Caring Bridge, the next evening, November 7: "You rule over the surging sea, and when its waves mount up, you still them." -Psalm 89:9 They told us the first 24 hours would be critical. So we reached out to you, and you stormed… Read More

Everyone was settling down for sleep, but the old woman had to talk to the teacher. What she’d heard tonight was earth-shattering. Mind-blowing. Life-changing. Filth removed, disgrace transformed to honor, rejected now accepted? The story of the sick woman and Jesus was unlike any of the stories told in her tribe. The flickering firelight deepened the rich, warm espresso of her wizened face as she leaned close to the storyteller. “Thank you.” Like the woman reaching her hand out to touch Jesus, she paused to gather her courage for the next words. “I always knew I could be forgiven. But I never knew I could be clean.” To learn more about this woman’s story and how you can be made clean, get your copy of… Read More

 Is being unknown such a bad thing? The thought of being known can be terrifying if we don't like what we know about ourselves. The possibility of rejection looms large and threatening, and sometimes, like during a global pandemic when we are forced to distance ourselves anyway, we wonder if being unknown might be a good thing. It's nice not wearing makeup, working from home in pajamas, just coming as we are to life, nobody watching and judging what they perceive to know about us. But it's not actually being truly known that poses the problem. It's the pain of rejection that may follow being known. So we work hard to protect and groom what is known about us. My Muslim friends are very good at this. So… Read More

Somehow just doesn't sit right with me. Today we find ourselves on the tippy-top of the mountain, hump-day, round-the-corner day, Wednesday. (By the time you read this, we will likely be heading down the hill to Thursday.) I do not usually post on Wednesdays, but in times like these, I think we could all do with a little mid-week encouragement. I have been stuck on an old phrase lately, and you might get stuck on it too. We will make it through this season, not somehow, but triumphantly. It is said that the wonderful expression "not somehow, but triumphantly" gained popularity among Christian missionaries in the prisoner-of-war camps of Japan during World War II. Day after day, they rose, fixed their eyes on Jesus, and gathered… Read More

for Erick George Floyd, you were caught trying to buy a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill, according to the news reports. As you placed that bill on the counter in hopes of getting one more drag from a cigarette you had no idea you stood on the razor-fine edge of a precipice, your life an inflection point for an entire nation. You had no clue you would soon ignite an honor outcry. I wonder if you’d known, if someone asked if you had it in you to change the world, what your answer would have been.  Not many of us think we have the power to change the world. World-changing, history-defining moments often happen in an unplanned instant to common people. Our… Read More

You who are my comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me. Jeremiah 8:18 I sit by the water, watching a leaf trickle through the air on its journey to the rippling surface. The sky is blue and the clouds’ edges are so sharp they look frazzled and irritated. The perfection of their silhouette against brilliant azure seems to frustrate them. They want to frizz out a bit and break the blissful facade. Kind of like my naturally curly hair I work so hard to straighten. The wind kicks her heels, threatening to upend my coffee cup as if she agrees to help. Two people sit nearby and make me mad. I want to be alone. I don’t want to hear another human voice. I… Read More

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”John 8:12 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.Matthew 27:45 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.  The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that… Read More

He will restore us in a very short time; he will heal us in a little while, so that we may live in his presence. Hosea 6:2 How strange, apocalyptic, it must have been for the people who entered our home and boxed up all our belongings after the fire. Room by room, they picked up every salvageable item and placed it carefully in cardboard boxes to be cleaned and restored. We were plucked up and removed from our life, as it were, in an instant. We did not know that morning when we threw the covers back to face another day that we would not be in our home that night to snuggle down again into our comfortable beds. Or for many, many long… Read More

My counsel to you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7, MSG School’s out. Families are clustering around dining room tables sorting how to do school at home and everyone’s wondering… can I just sleep in every day? The Coronavirus has brought a new level of suffering to the home, the neighborhood, the city, the state, the nation, and the globe. Life as we have enjoyed it until… Read More