If You Remember One Thing This Christmas

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I was rushing around the kitchen this week, getting dinner prepped, and directing my boys to finish their homework when the kids’ Sunday School memory verse caught my attention: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.  Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:6-7 ESV) Sometimes we live sparingly and we sow sparingly in our own lives and in the lives of the people around us. Some days, if we’re honest, … [Read more...]

A People for His Own Possession

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"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'" (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV) Our lives as Christians don’t occur in isolation from other believers. The Christian life is marked out because in Christ, we are included in the redeemed people of God. We are the ones our Savior Jesus Christ, … [Read more...]

His Promise is Stronger than Your Struggle

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In Exodus 33, Moses implored God, “Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight,’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 3:14 ESV) Moses pleads with God in a way that many of us mothers do. We pray, “show me what to do,” “be with me”, “remember us”, “teach us”. And God’s reply to Moses, is much like Jesus’ … [Read more...]

Sufferings of This Present Time

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“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God… For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Romans 8:18-19 ESV When we’re grieving a loss, we often are tempted to focus our attention on … [Read more...]

He is With Us in Our Longing

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Psalm 139:9-18 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,”  even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.  For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.  My frame … [Read more...]