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Living in Joy
Life is a crazy up and down ride, and the joy we are supposed to exhibit as a fruit of the Spirit may seem impossible. In fact, when I wrote about love – the first fruit of the Spirit – it seemed pretty impossible too. It is impossible to do on our own, and that is why it is a fruit OF THE SPIRIT. We need the help of the Holy Spirit who indwells us as believers to follow this command. However, I believe when we love others as Jesus Christ commands, then joy promptly and easily follows. Sometimes people get confused about the difference between joy and happiness. Happiness…
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When My Strengths are My Weaknesses
It’s no secret to my friends that I like to keep a clean house. It’s kind of who I have always been. Even as a child I tried to keep my bedroom clean and organized. Most would say it is one of my strengths. However, I have found it can also be one of my weaknesses. How? During Memorial Day weekend we had guests coming to stay for two nights. Besides providing meals, I also decided we should have a cookout on Monday and invite additional guests. My “Game Plan” was typed (literally) and ready to tick off by the Wednesday before with all the things I needed to do…
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When You Feel Left Out
Lonely. Left out. Uninvited. These are words probably all of us have felt at one time or another, maybe more than what we feel is our fair share. Maybe you are feeling it right now. You scroll through social media and see where YOUR friends have gotten together…but you weren’t invited. You hear friends at church, school, or work making plans or talking about something they did together, and once again, you were left out. It is completely possible to be in a room full of people, but loneliness overwhelms your being. I’ve been there; it seems like more times than not. It hurts. You wonder why you weren’t invited.…
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Wake Up! Open Your Eyes!
What’s your spiritual thermostat set on? Our nineteen year old daughter, Elizabeth, finished her first week as a counselor at a teen camp this past Saturday. If you could outline what a perfect week would be like for a first-time counselor, then she had it: sweet, well-behaved ninth grade girls, the opportunity to lead several girls to the Lord as well as counsel others about assurance of salvation, great weather (for the high desert regions of CA), and precious times of testimony and prayer with these girls. As you can imagine, she is currently on a spiritual high. (It does this mama’s heart good too.) In one week, she grew…
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Love One to Another
Loving Like Jesus Recently, I began a series on the fruit of the Spirit entitled “Cultivating Fruit” and am continuing the series with the first fruit in the list, love. I have been taught and strongly believe every word in Scripture is there in its place for a specific reason. Therefore, when Paul listed “love” as the first fruit, he meant it needed to be first place. Showing our love to others is an undeniable fundamental in the Christian faith. Jesus was adamant His disciples were to show love to others. He taught unbelievers would know the disciples were His followers by the love they showed (John 13:35). In fact…
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Seasons of Turmoil
How to Face Trials If you have lived very long on this earth, then you recognize the fact that life has seasons just like the change in weather patterns we experience throughout each year. And just as we do not have the ability to alter the continual cycle of the weather seasons, we often have little control over the events causing us to enter a new season whether it’s a sunshiny, happy time or dark, dismal one. A friend or family member diagnosed with cancer – Will they make it through this?The death of a loved one – How will I face tomorrow without them in my life?The loss of…
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Called to Freedom
Probably my earliest memory of learning history in school was being taught about the pilgrims coming to North America on the Mayflower. Most on that voyage were looking to come to a land where a government would not tell them they had to practice a certain religion. It is why the Constitution of the United States starts out ensuring our religious freedoms with the first amendment. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of…
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Cultivating Fruit
When my kids were in second grade, their class at school visited an area apple orchard for a field trip. The owner of the historic orchard was quite the story teller taking the students and chaperones on a wagon ride to give the history of the orchard and the events during the Revolutionary War that unfolded on the mountainous land itself. After buying the old orchard the owner and his family wondered if it would really be that hard to grow apples on the severely overgrown and neglected trees. Some of the heirloom trees were over 85 years old. They had been through floods and blight and freezes that had…
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United We Stand
“Working Together as a Local Church” Sometimes a particular idea or word will continue to pop up in your life whether it’s podcasts you listen to, sermons, your Bible reading, or whatever. A word that has been repeatedly turning up in my life has been “unity.” It’s something I have been praying for a lot lately in regards to the leaders of our church. Unity can be good or bad. Groups in our culture today unify against common goals that as Christians is against our moral and religious beliefs. Everywhere you turn it seems people are putting themselves in groups whether it’s things such as denomination or political party or…