“My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make melody. Awake, my soul! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn. I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples, and I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the […]
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. – Psalm 130:1-4 We all fail. We fall short, mess up, and yes, even […]
“Remember, I am with you always” – Matthew 28:20 Today, is a good day! It’s not a holiday, or a family celebration, and I have idea what it will bring. So far, the morning included a shower, breakfast, and some coffee, but I know it is a good day. You may wonder how I know and the answer is simple, Jesus is with me. It […]
In the last series of posts I wrote, one person commented about a distinction between God using our negative circumstances and God causing them. The latter was hard for them to embrace. I originally planned to respond to the comment in my post the following week in May 2015, and then, life took a serious change. As I approached the end of May, I started […]
We all have them, seasons we would rather avoid, that cause us to lose focus and drain our joy. Still, rough patches are a part of being alive. They make up the texture of our lives and going through them can make us stronger in the process. The past year was such a season in our lives. Unexpected challenges arose in a steady stream, sometimes […]
There is nothing quite like knowing you are on your way! There is a sense of excitement and joy that comes from each new beginning in our lives. We feel things begin to tremble as we begin to launch and we know that we are underway, something amazing is about to begin. The anticipation is tangible. Even facing some fear and the unknowns, we know […]
Identifying the sources of negative spiritual gravity in our lives is the first step to breaking free. When we see what is holding us back, those things begin to lose some power in the light of that exposure, but knowing gravity exists will not give us the power to overcome its pull. We need to take active steps to move upward. Here are five steps […]
Yesterday, we considered the challenge of overcoming negative sources of spiritual gravity holding us back from living an adventurous life with Jesus. In order to break free from the pull of these strongholds, we must first identify them. While the list could be quite long, here are seven common sources of negative spiritual gravity: 1. Familiarity This is the one, as a pastor, I encounter […]
Gravity, it is the weak force of physics that keeps us strongly rooted to the ground and affects everything from the lightest feather to the grandest sun. It is something we depend upon for life to remain ordered, and it is surprisingly difficult to overcome. We see that difficulty every time we watch a rocket launch. Massive amounts of fuel are needed to create the […]
Today is a sunny spring day, but one look out the window at the vast amounts of snow covering the lawn, along with the occasional flurries still falling from above, it is clear that the season is not fully realized yet. A quick check of my weather app also points out that it feels like it is only eight degrees outside. This is certainly not […]