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Newsletter Articles:
Hearing God’s Whispered Shout
“What do You want me to do today?” I ask the Almighty in my mind. He, of course, being God, has time for my question. This, I actually believe. I believe in a miracle when I believe that God hears me ask Him questions. I also believe that if I quiet my brain down, I can hear His whispered shout of an answer.
Why Hard Things?
Why do we challenge ourselves to do difficult things?
What’s New With You?
Jake asked me, “What’s new with you?”
Nothing came to mind. I was a little disappointed with myself that nothing came to mind. Am I living in a worn-down pattern where nothing is new anymore? This is not good.
Community You Were Made For
The life you have been given is the very place where God wants to encounter you. It's not about waiting until you have everything figured out, become perfect, or until life settles down and you have more time.
Gravel - The Lord’s Prayer
“Dad, you should get a gravel bike,” my youngest son said to me in the garage.
“What is a gravel bike?” I asked.
“It’s a bike made for riding on the dirt roads you have all around here. There are miles and miles of them. And there is hardly any traffic. It’s the perfect place to ride. You would love it, and they make bikes just for them,” he answered.
The Fragrance of Christ
I have a garden bed attached to my house that I've filled with herbs for the last four years. However, my husband, Ethan, often remarked that they looked more like a weed bed than a properly maintained garden. While they may not have had extravagant appearances—except for the Russian Sage—they produced useful, beautiful, and fragrant herbs. Overall, they seemed rather basic, unimportant, and unkempt.
Love That Can’t Be Budgeted
What do Jesus and Kitchen Aid mixers have in common? They hum a very harmonious tune in my ears. More on this in a moment.
Our calendars and all of history recognize this moment. We define our years both past and future in reference to this day. The day that a perfectly moral man named Jesus died, the worst death that humanity could invent for itself. History tells us that Rome reserved crucifixion for only the worst kinds of people, and it is said that people would request to be burned alive rather than be crucified because of the prolonged agony that it would cause. Some of the worst crucifixions kept a victim suspended in the air, hanging between both heaven and earth, and between life and death, for up to three days. It was the most unimaginable way to die.
Remember Awe?
Remember awe? Was it that magnificent view of a snow-capped mountain range? Perhaps you've felt a sense of awe while holding a newborn baby. How about that time when an unexpected event took place that mightily impacted your life’s trajectory? Or you could be a “thinker” experiencing an epiphany.
Hope at Walmart
I’m in Walmart. Everyone looks so hopeless. Eyes are looking at the floor. Elbows down on the shopping cart and bodies leaning over. The carts are creaking under the weight of it.
Blank facial expressions all around. Even the children. I catch myself thinking that these parents are killing their children and don’t even know it. Maybe that thought is a bit strong.
The God We Make
We have suddenly been given temporary custody of a large and powerful Doberman Pinscher. He is tall enough to give me a nose poke in the arm over the top of the arm of my armchair. He does this poking when he needs to go out. Or when he wants me to think he needs to go out, even if he doesn’t need to, but wants to. This would be the male dog manipulating the alpha male. Being king around here is an illusion.
Unhurried for 90 Minutes
My favorite time to talk to God is when I’m riding my gravel bike on one of the many dirt roads that define the 1-mile grids of the Thumb of Michigan. There are no cars, no people, and no distractions. Just pedal the bike, shift the gears to keep that perfect cadence while riding up and down the occasional gentle hill. It’s my perfect time to look up across the farmland and discuss things with God.
My friend Nate says he prays best when alone in the wood shop, making something beautiful from a tree. I’ve heard friends say they like to pray when they have to drive somewhere or while mowing the lawn.
Milk, Goodreads, and Restless Hearts
If I could plainly state to someone my reason for reading my bible, for spending time in prayer, in worship, attending church, ministering to our church body, for that matter, I would tell you it is to love God and know God. That statement is true most of the time, but is it always that I want to know God? Or rather, have I fallen into times of just wanting to know OF God?
Why do we pray?
“Why do we pray?”
The Bible talks at length about prayer. Fun fact: There are two things that God loves to collect. Prayers & Tears. Meaning every prayer you whisper, sandwiched in between your morning yawns, is intimately collected by God. Your tears are the same. Bottled up and stored as a reminder by our Father that He is deeply connected to both our victories and our agonies. The truth of the matter is that though our earthly bodies are aging, adding more wrinkles, moles, and bald spots than we would care for along the way, our prayers and tears are stored up eternally - they aren’t old news to Jesus.
I AM IN HIM, AND HE IS IN ME.
My biological son consists of 30 trillion human cells. That is a 3 with 13 zeros after it. A number so large it’s impossible to grasp its enormity. Think of the distance to the nearest star in miles.
With the exception of his red blood cells and platelets, every one of those cells has within it a molecule called DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid).