This Is the Day
In 1940, Dr. Virginia Connally, age 27, braved opposition and criticism to become the first female physician in Abilene, Texas. A few months before her 100th birthday in 2012, the Texas Medical Association presented her with its Distinguished Service Award, Texas’ highest physician honor. Between those two landmark events, Dr. Connally has enthusiastically embraced a passion for spreading the gospel around the world through her many medical mission trips while living a life of service to God and to others—one day at a time.
Dr. Connally’s pastor, Phil Christopher, said, “Every day for her is a gift.” He recalled a letter…
I was just having the "same old day", so I thought nothing different about it. I descended the stairs, head heavy with the weight of my thoughts that had somehow turned into a whole sky full of nimbus clouds. When I reached the kitchen to pour my father a glass of water, my mother suddenly sang a Christian song they used to teach me in Sunday school. The song was about Jesus and the blind man who begged for Jesus to heal him. Like in John 9, Jesus healed the man and he was granted sight.
Unlike the man, I and a lot of us are blinded not from birth, but from ungratefulness. We tend to disregard the things God has given us. Instead, we often feel jealous when our neighbor's "grass" seems to be "greener" than ours. However, what we do not think of is if our grass was as green as our neighbors', would we care for it at all? Would we notice at all? Or would we just leave them to wilt and then sulk once they lose their colors?
Whenever you feel down or unhappy with your life, try to count your uncountable blessings. Like the blind man who begged for Jesus to heal him, let us seek God and make room for Him in our hearts, so that He could help us turn away from falling back into a blinding disease caused by lack of gratefulness.
The real message behind Deborah and Barak
Many people interpret the story of Deborah, a judge and prophetess of Israel, and Barak, the chief military commander in Israel, to be about gender. One where the male doesn’t “man up” and a woman has to step in. But is this true? Today on “Discover the Word,” the group, along with author Carolyn Custis James, talks about the real message behind Deborah and Barak. Join the discussion today on “Discover the Word”!
Confessions of a Christian Life Hacker
I watch, impressed, as a friend tears open a bag of crisps, tucks in the bottom corners of the packet and keeps rolling the sides under until he’s created an instant snack bowl from nothing but the original packaging—ingenious!
Heart Check
When commuting into Chicago on the train, I always followed the “unwritten codes of conduct”—such as, no conversations with people sitting next to you if you don’t know them. That was tough on a guy like me who has never met a stranger. I love talking to new people! Although I kept the code of silence, I realized that you can still learn something about people based on the section of the newspaper they read. So I’d watch to see what they turned to first: The business section? Sports? Politics? Current events? Their choices revealed their interests.
Our choices are always…
The favored son
Most parents try not to play favorites with their children. But that wasn’t true for some famous families in the Bible. Today on “Discover the Word,” we will discuss, along with our guest Carolyn Custis James, how Jacob’s obvious preference for his younger son, Joseph, created a deep father-wound in his son, Judah. It’s an overlooked “side note” in the Bible that’s critical for us to learn from. A revealing conversation today on “Discover the Word”!
Resisting the Trap
A Venus flytrap can digest an insect in about 10 days. The process begins when an unsuspecting bug smells nectar on the leaves that form the trap. When the insect investigates, it crawls into the jaws of the plant. The leaves clamp shut within half a second and digestive juices dissolve the bug.
This meat-eating plant reminds me of the way sin can devour us if we are lured into it. Sin is hungry for us. Genesis 4:7 says, “If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you.” God spoke these…
How Abraham influences us today
How does the patriarchal world of the Bible impact our modern understanding of what it means to be a man? Today on “Discover the Word,” we continue our study on “Malestrom” with author Carolyn Custis James. And we’ll be going to the story of Abraham to see how one of the patriarchs influences us today. Join us on “Discover the Word”!
How I Got Rid of Self-Pity
I have many reasons to feel sorry for myself. The biggest one is my physical disability: I was born deaf. I could not speak until I was seven years old, when my parents sent me to a special elementary school for handicapped people.
Who Am I Working For?
Henry worked 70 hours a week. He loved his job and brought home a sizeable paycheck to provide good things for his family. He always had plans to slow down but he never did. One evening he came home with great news—he had been promoted to the highest position in his company. But no one was home. Over the years, his children had grown up and moved out, his wife had found a career of her own, and now the house was empty. There was no one to share the good news with.
Solomon talked about the need to keep a…
Right around February or March 2015 sitting in our living room with my wife of 42 years, I suddenly felt warm and FILLED with love for her! I shared this feeling with her, and we were both bewildered why. As the days and weeks passed, I reminded her that the "feeling" was still there. We both figured it was from God, but why? It wasn't uncommon for us share our love for each other. On May 14,2015, we went for a bicycle ride. We live in the country, and were about 50 yards from our house when my wife lost her balance and fell in a grassy ditch. She didn't seem to be in any pain, so I was relieved. She wasn't in any pain because she fractured her vertebrae "smashing" her spinal cord, leaving her paralyzed from the chest down! In that instant our lives were changed forever, with no warning. I had no clue what was ahead for us. The surgeon told us he was able to repair the vertebrae, but the spinal chord is "smashed", not severed or lacerated though. He said in his 25 years of practice, he has never seen a spinal chord smashed this bad come back, but that doesn't mean it won't. One night while she was neurological icu, she asked me if was sure I wanted to spend the rest of my life taking care of her like this. I reassured her that I answered that question on our wedding day! Those 4-6 weeks before the accident God "filled" me to the top with love for my high school sweetheart in preparation for what was about to happen. We have received a lot of help and support from our church,family,and friends. Because of God's abounding Grace, we wake up each morning with joy in our hearts.
This Is a Poem I wrote before accepting Christ.
I had lot of troubles and trials and had been abused.
I thank God for his wonderful Love. Psalm: 147:3
He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds...
My poem: HOPE
I sit beneath this beautiful tree
Tell and majestic as it can be
I look above and see the Sun peeping through
And I wonder God Just who are you
I wonder if you're really real
And can you know this pain I feel.
If you're real on God above
Please fill my aching heart with Love
Take me in your arms and hold me tight...
For I need to know things will be alright....
…things get broken…friends and loved ones die, relationships end, terrible things happen and our world shatters into pieces…and that’s tragic. But the greatest tragedy of all is not that our lives get broken but that they’re not mended again.
Like a pottery jar that slips from our hands and crashes on the floor into dozens of pieces...so it is in life. People, relationships…things we hold dear slip from our grasp and seemingly disappear but our despair, sense of loss and sadness doesn’t have to remain that way. There is hope for the heart.
I have a friend…a master Potter who not only creates unique, beautiful vessels that adorn our world and bring joy and simplistic beauty to our lives but also has an even greater talent for repairing those creations that become damaged or broken. Hands so skilled and so steady…so intimately attuned to His creation that each piece could be carefully and meticulously restored to its original beauty.
I had the opportunity to visit Him in his workshop one time. I had what was once a beautiful vessel that the Potter had made…adorned with meticulous carvings, masterful art and paintworks, sturdy and seemingly unbreakable. Suddenly, without warning it was knocked from its safe and secure place on the mantle and broke into dozens of pieces on the floor. I was brokenhearted, despondent and so sad while thinking that my pottery was gone forever but then I remembered my Friend. If anyone could repair a shattered vessel and restore it to its original beauty it would be Him. So I gathered up every piece of my broken possession and made my way to the Potter’s house.
With outstretched arms he welcomed me and spread out the pieces of what was once a most treasured possession. I watched Him as He painstakingly gathered up the pieces and, as the master Potter He was, began the process of putting my cherished work of art back together.
He told me as He worked that with special glue He would reassemble my pottery and that it would be even stronger than it was originally. It took some time…most of the day as He examined piece by piece each and every shard and slowly renewed what was seemingly lost forever.
I noticed as He presented me with my repaired and beautifully restored vessel that I could still see the outline of the pieces that He had so carefully reassembled. He knew that I had noticed them and told me without me asking that He left those intentionally…So that I not only would remember how and why my (His) work of art came to be shattered but most importantly how He put the pieces back together again and that in so doing it was stronger and more beautiful than ever.
My friend, the master Potter, knew what I needed and He knows what each of His creations need to be restored from what seems to be unrestorable situations. He can restore beauty from ugliness and tragedy and He can answer the question of Why…without our even asking.
Who is my friend the master Potter who not only creates unique and exquisite works of art but also repairs and restores what breaks into a million pieces?...His name is Jesus and He’s all you need when things in life break and your dreams are shattered.
I hope and pray that each and every one of you have my sweet friend Jesus to call on when things get broken and may He give comfort and peace to your mind, heal your hurt and bring hope to your heart is my prayer dear friends.
God Bless, keep and caress you all in His tender care!
