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Beginning Again
After Christmas festivities conclude at the end of December, my thoughts often turn to the coming year. While my children are out of school and our daily rhythms are slow, I reflect on where the last year has brought me and where I hope the next will take me. Those reflections sometimes come with pain and regret over the mistakes I’ve made. Yet the prospect of starting a new year fills me with hope and expectancy. I feel I have the opportunity to begin again with a fresh start, no matter what the last year held.
My anticipation of a fresh…
Silent Night of the Soul
Long before Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber created the familiar carol “Silent Night,” Angelus Silesius had written:
Lo! in the silent night a child to God is born,
And all is brought again that ere was lost or lorn.
Could but thy soul, O man, become a silent night
God would be born in thee and set all things aright.
Silesius, a Polish monk, published the poem in 1657 in The Cherubic Pilgrim. During our church’s annual Christmas Eve service, the choir sang a beautiful rendition of the song titled “Could but Thy Soul Become a Silent Night.”
The twofold mystery of Christmas is that God became…
Extreme Measures
A few years ago, a friend of mine lost track of her young son while walking through a swarm of people at Union Station in Chicago. Needless to say, it was a terrifying experience. Frantically, she yelled his name and ran back up the escalator, retracing her steps in an effort to find her little boy. The minutes of separation seemed like hours, until, suddenly—thankfully—her son emerged from the crowd and ran to the safety of her arms.
Thinking of my friend who would have done anything to find her child fills me with a renewed sense of gratitude for the…
Global impact begins with our local community
I think it’s safe to say we all want to make a difference in the world, in some small or big way. But where do we start? Today the Discover the Word team concludes their weeklong study in the gospel of John, with the revelation that global impact begins in our local community. Making a […]
Jesus is making all things new
Out with the old, in with the new! Today on Discover the Word, the team continues their study in the gospel of John, looking at how Jesus removes anything that stands in the way of our relationship with God, even if that “thing” is religion. Jesus is making all things new, and that includes you […]
The first miracle Jesus performed
You’ve probably heard someone say, “Everything happens for a reason”! Well today on Discover the Word, we will take a closer look at the first miracle Jesus performed, playing wine steward at a wedding in John chapter one. What was John’s reason for recording this miracle? Listen today to Discover the Word!
Putting your beliefs into action
We can say we believe something, but until we put those beliefs into action you have to question whether we actually do believe. Today on Discover the Word, the team continues their series titled, “The Call to Believe.” And answering the call begins by hearing. So listen today, as together we study the life-changing wisdom […]
“The call to believe”
Comics write jokes to get a laugh, news anchors write to share information, and the apostle John wrote to announce . . . what? Well, today on Discover the Word, the team kicks off a gripping new series examining John’s gospel and why he told the Jesus story the way he did. It’s a persuasive […]
It’s All a Gift!
London’s Café Rendezvous has nice lighting, comfortable couches, and the smell of coffee in the air. What it doesn’t have are prices. Originally started as a business by a local church, the café was transformed a year after it started. The managers felt that God was calling them to do something radical—make everything on the menu free. Today you can order a coffee, cake, or sandwich without cost. There isn’t even a donation jar. It’s all a gift.
I asked the manager why they were so generous. “We’re just trying to treat people the way God treats us,” he said. “God…
Knowing Better
When we brought our adoptive son home from overseas, I was eager to shower him with love and provide what he had lacked over the preceding months, especially quality food, since he had a nutritional deficit. But despite our best efforts, including consulting specialists, he grew very little. After nearly three years, we learned he had some severe food intolerances. After removing those items from his diet, he grew five inches in just a few months. While I grieved at how long I’d unwittingly fed him foods that impaired his growth, I rejoiced at this surge in his health!
I suspect…
The Heart’s True Home
We had a West Highland Terrier for a number of years. “Westies” are tough little dogs, bred to tunnel into badger holes and engage the “enemy” in its lair. Our Westie was many generations removed from her origins, but she still retained that instinct, put into her through years of breeding. On one occasion she became obsessed by some “critter” under a rock in our back yard. Nothing could dissuade her. She dug and dug until she tunneled several feet under the rock.
Now consider this question: Why do we as humans pursue, pursue, pursue? Why must we climb unclimbed mountains,…
4 Lessons Only Failure Can Teach
There are many different ways to fail. I fail to read my Bible every day. I fail to tell the truth to my parents sometimes. I fail to say kind things to people who annoy or frustrate me.
Hide and Seek
“You can’t see me!”
When small children play “hide and seek,” they sometimes believe they’re hiding just by covering their eyes. If they can’t see you, they assume you can’t see them.
Naïve as that may seem to adults, we sometimes do something similar with God. When we find ourselves desiring to do something we know is wrong, our tendency may be to “shut God out” as we willfully go our own way.
The prophet Ezekiel discovered this truth in the vision God gave him for his people, exiled in Babylon. The Lord told him, “Have you seen what the elders of Israel…
How Much More!
In October 1915, during World War I, Oswald Chambers arrived at Zeitoun Camp, a military training center near Cairo, Egypt, to serve as a YMCA chaplain to British Commonwealth soldiers. When he announced a weeknight religious service, 400 men packed the large YMCA hut to hear Chambers’ talk titled, “What Is the Good of Prayer?” Later, when he spoke individually with men who were trying to find God in the midst of war, Oswald often quoted Luke 11:13, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father…
