I spent roughly the first seventeen and a half years of my life in the same city. I only ever attended my home church, I was homeschooled from kindergarten through high school, and my circle of friends consisted almost solely of kids I’d grown up with at church and a handful of students I’d met through state youth choirs and events. My parents and extended family are largely Christian, and the friends I made in my neighborhood growing up were from much the same background as I. All in all, I lived a somewhat sheltered life.
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John
Ignorance and Faith
Sometimes – nay, often – man has absolutely no idea of what God is doing. And I’m beginning to understand that the tension brought upon our faith by our ignorance of God’s plan is, in some cases, the best place for us to be as we seek to know him better.
Trusting When We Do Not Understand
Here’s the setting: You’re sitting in a restaurant with your friends enjoying dinner. This is one of those restaurants that offers complimentary ice cream cones after every meal, and the ice cream machine has been getting a steady stream of traffic since you sat down. As you watch, kids all across the building scarf down their food with enthusiasm before turning (with mouths still full of their last bites) to their parents to get permission to go get ice cream. The kids can hardly stay in their chairs, hopping down and running to the ice cream machine as soon as they get the go ahead. You watch as little boys and girls figure out just how high they can get their soft serve to go on their little cones, and you laugh as the once clean faces are now being painted with vanilla. But then you notice one little boy crying.
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Daniel and Christmas
In the book of Daniel, we read of a handful of God-fearing men who were taken from their homeland and were brought to Babylon to be trained for service to the king. Because of their devotion to the Lord, these men stood out from their peers in wisdom and understanding (Daniel 1:17-21), earning them high places before the king. The stories of how God used these men are extraordinary, so it’s no surprise that many of us learned these stories in Sunday School classes and Vacation Bible Schools growing up. Yet these stories are not just for children.
Amazing Grace
I love Christmas. I love the chilly weather outside, the lights strung throughout the trees in the park, and the sounds of Christmas music everywhere. I love the warm feeling that accompanies giving gifts to loved ones, and I even love facing the crowds to get those last minute gifts. Christmas, for these reasons and more, is arguably my favorite time of the year. Continue reading
Good News of Great Joy
I’m not very good at connecting the dots. If I’m watching a movie with some friends, I’m usually the one who will be surprised at the plot twist that everyone else saw coming. So it shouldn’t surprise me that I missed the point of the Christmas story for the longest time.
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The Example
Inspired by John 13
Creator of the universe
Inhabiting our little earth
Fulfilling ev’ry holy verse
The highest name of heaven’s worth
His glory he has laid aside
To grant a gaze to sinners’ eyes
The Savior stooped to now abide
To die for justice and to rise
He has the right to claim the throne
He need not face our fallen throes
But still he comes to call his own
To bear the cross his Father chose
His place as Lord is clearly seen
His praises, many men repeat
And yet he comes to make us clean
Our God is washing dirty feet
Humility in sacrifice
Messiah meeting man in plight
Our God has paid the highest price
Salvation springs from dying Light
His victory is now proclaimed
Exalted over ev’ry name
His standard, too, has now been framed
“Go now,” He says, “And do the same.”
The Death of Love?
Nicholas Sparks, the author of a large number of romance novels, divorced his wife of twenty-five years earlier this year according to a number of sources online. The articles I read noted that he and his wife had come to this decision after much consideration, but separation was still the final verdict. Continue reading
The Joy of Being a Part of the Wedding
When the disciples of John the Baptist noticed that people were leaving John to follow Jesus and to be baptized by his disciples, they came to their teacher to express their concerns. Rather than responding with a plan to grow his numbers back up or with a fear of losing his voice among the people, John spoke these words:
He Must Increase
He must increase, but I must decrease.
John 3:30
as i learn to walk 