-
Fake Fan
My husband played football from preschool through college, but being an English major, I am not as bent toward sports as him. However, a local university in our town has a competitive basketball team in which we have season tickets, so on we go. During the season we attend most of the home games and even hit an away game or two. If anyone were to observe me watching the game, they would find I invest energy into it by cheering for the our players, getting upset when I think the ref made a bad call, and even make an annoying, loud noise when the other team is shooting foul…
-
The Blame Game
The Devil Made Me Do It? My recent Bible reading has had me in Job. The trials (attacks) Job experienced are beyond anything we can imagine. He even says the things he âgreatly fearedâ in life came to pass (Job 3:25). He was heartbroken, he was in distress, and he was physically in pain, but he did not blame God. Through it all he did not sin, and most importantly, he did not lose his faith in God. He continued to trust and praise Him through it. Compare that to the first man and woman in Genesis, Adam and Eve. When they were tempted with sin and then committed the…
-
The Danger of Comfort
This quote… This quote was in my most recent blog post, but when I was thinking about the danger of comfort in the believerâs life recently, I realized the quote applied to that topic as well. You see, we are creatures of comfort. Raining outside? Give me a cozy blanket and good book to read. Snowing outside? Give me a cozy blanket and a good book to read. Sunshiny outside? Give me a cozy blanket and a good book to read. For you it might include a movie or a coffee or something else, but you get the idea. We like comfort, to be comfortable, to not have things in…
-
Fresh Starts
Here we are looking at a new year and a new decade. As we grow older we realize Godâs Word on life being like a vapor is accurate (James 4:14). After all we are about 60 days from spring, 100 days from Easter, 150 days from summerâŚ.oh, and about 360 days until Christmas. đ Haha! Some of those things seem so far away, but we know how quickly 2019 went. With the New Year, many of us decide itâs a great time for a fresh start whether itâs to do things differently or to improve in areas of our lives. We make resolutions or pick a word-of-the-year to strive to…
-
How’s Your Appetite?
This post was originally published for Encouragement from Women Whoâve Been There. I am currently taking a break for the Christmas holiday to be with my family. đ Growing up in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, my family planted a huge garden every year. Whatever vegetables or fruits we did not grow ourselves, we rarely bought or ate. It was a very Southern meat and three sides cuisine I was raised eating. Having the opportunity in high school to travel to Mexico for a mission trip with the youth ministry, the possibility of differences in food vaguely crossed my mind. I mean, Mom made those Ortega taco kits which I…
-
Giving Our Best in Worship
This post was originally published for Encouragement from Women Who’ve Been There. I am currently taking a break for the Christmas holiday to be with my family. đ âAnd when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.â Matthew 2:11 As children many of us learned about the three gifts that were brought to baby Jesus. Although the Bible does not say how much the gold, frankincense, and myrrh were worth, it is known the gifts had a very high…
-
All God, All Man
Most of us would agree Christmas is an important Christian holiday. After all, itâs when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior. However, I wonder if we truly understand and think about what really transpired when Jesus was born of the young virgin, Mary. A central miracle Christianity revolves on is the incarnation of Jesus Christ. God became Flesh. He laid down His divinity and took on humanity (Philippians 2:6-7). We must remember before He came to earth, He was not human, but once He took on the body of a man, He assumed that position permanently. He was still all God, but now He was also all…
-
Mary, Mother of Jesus
One woman stands out among all the women mentioned in the Bible. One woman who has been admired universally for generations. One woman that was sovereignly chosen above all women ever created to carry the Messiah. She was Mary, mother of Jesus. God entrusted her to birth, nourish, teach, and care for His only Son. She is said to be âblessed among womenâ not because of who she was but because of Whom she was to mother (Luke 1:28). She was âfavoredâ which translates to mean she found grace in Godâs eyes (Luke 1:30). She lived a godly life (not sinless). She willingly surrendered her body, her reputation, and her…
-
Tell Your Story
Our testimony is our story. It is our story of how we came to Jesus Christ – our conversion of how we acknowledged our sin and wanted to made clean in the sight of God. Itâs our story of when we became a child of God (John 1:12), because before then we were a child of the devil (John 8:42-44). When we tell someone of the day we made this decision, then we are telling our story, our testimony. This past week I finished reading through the book of Acts which is written by the apostle Luke but is predominately about Paul. Once a persecutor and hater of Jesusâ followers…