Dear Friends, In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. […]
A Word of Grace
A Word of Grace – November 29, 2010
Dear Friends: Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned […]
A Word of Grace – November 22, 2010
Dear Friends: There is certainly every reason to desire such a gathering and to work to make it happen. At the heart of the Thanksgiving holiday is a celebration of the blessings of community and grace. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because of the thought behind it. If there is “thanks” to be given then […]
A Word of Grace – November 15, 2010
Prayer is an important sifting tool in my experience. Many times I have sifted through a toxic mess of irritation, concern, humiliation and pain before my heavenly Father. As my jumbled thoughts and feelings tumble from my mind and heart, something will catch in my soul and literally pull me to my feet in indignation or distress. That leaves me with a choice to stuff what troubles me back into the crevices of my heart to be dealt with later in my own devices, or to let it go to God with a plea, “Here, Father, take this and my desire for vindication that goes with it. Remove it from the reach of heart and mind.”
A Word of Grace – November 8, 2010
am writing this week about rebellion against God, the kind we expect and criticize and the subtler kind we try to deny and explain away. Both bring us to the same place–opposition to God and obstruction of his plans for us. There is thread that runs through the seemingly unrelated stories of King Uzziah of Judah recorded in 2 Chronicles 15 and Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 on a Galilean mountainside recorded in John 6:1-15. If we follow that thread we will find it leads directly to our hearts.