Moments of Quiet Truth

      "Therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy, and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." Colossians 3:12       "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved,  . . . " 1 Peter 2:9-10      "And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, 'You are my people'; and he shall say, 'You are my God.'" Hosea 2:21-23 (speaking of Israel)      "Bu

     This holiday season has been soo much harder for reasons I don't fully understand.      When the beginning of December rolled around and I was reminded how many more days until Christmas I groaned. Christmas in retail becomes (or can) a thing to be dreaded. I couldn't wait until it was over and now it almost is.      The time has not been taken to stop, to ponder, to revel in the miracle of Christmas and now that it's almost here, if feels soo rushed. It's just another day to get through, or so it feels. There has been so much to do and you get in a rut of just doing the next thing so that you can survive the next day with something of your sanity intact.      This has been a season of change and of preparation for change and I think that reality has had a part to play in the difficulty of the season. For the first time in years, I'm anticipating the opportunity to spend significant time overseas next year in pursuit of the ministry the Lord has burdened

     Hope has been the theme of posts and passages that I’ve been reading the past few weeks.      Hope can seem impossible or it can feel as if the object hoped in or answer to a long-term prayer can seem impossible.Romans eight speaks to the reality that hope is anchored in things yet invisible. “For who hopes for what he sees?” (8:24). The hope mentioned is that of the redemption of the creation and of the children of a God - redeemed bodies for the saints and freedom from corruption for the created order.      Hope can seem foolish. When you persevere in prayer, month after month, with no visible answer, (especially when others are aware of the needs as well and the anticipated outcome), it’s tempting to shut your mouth about it. There is, lurking in the shadows, whispers of shame and guilt for holding out hope, confident expectation in what appears to be an impossible end. The lie goes, ‘If you haven’t seen fruit for your labors yet, what confidence do you have that anything w

     One of the Lord’s many gifts to me is the close proximity of my family roots. Ft. Collins is only an hour away from me. I feel connected to this place my dad’s family helped to build over a hundred years ago. My roots are here. A good portion of my dad’s family (4 generations back) are buried here.  They arrived with so little and yet became a part, not only of building a city but also of a university.       Being a bit of a moving nomad, I am so thankful for a place to come and find my footing again. This is a place where I can come and feel grounded again. This is a place I can call ‘home’ in the sense that my roots are here.      Better still than a physical heritage, I have a spiritual one as well. My great-great-great grandparents landed in what is now the Laporte/Greely area in 1862. I am unaware of their personal relationships with Jesus. I don’t know about their daughter, Anna, or her husband - the town drunk - either. I do know that their granddaughter- my great-grand

”Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” Proverbs 27:6      I’ve been reminded lately of the power of words to either encourage and build up or discourage and tear down. There needs to be a balance between encouragement and constructive criticism. If all the recipient hears is correction, it demotivates the individual and is a source of discouragement.       Paul floods 1st and 2nd Thessalonians with a higher concentration of encouraging words over any of his other letters. His tone is gentle and kind. He was only able to spend three weeks with them when he planted the church and he was anxious about them and the stability of their faith. He interacts with them as a concerned father, but he is not overbearing. He handles them with velvet gloves and shares with them that he rejoices before God over their genuine faith and the evidence of the presence of God in their lives. He doesn’t jump in with all the things they’re doing wrong and need to co

     I was reminded this morning by the Lord, that love is both a choice and a Person. “ Love suffers long, and is kind .” 1 Cor. 13:4      I so easily get wrapped up in my agenda for what I would like to see happen in the lives of those I love. I become so convinced that my desires for them, my plans for them are what is best for them. I strive so hard in prayer for God to work out MY plans for them and then get frustrated when He doesn’t listen or do things according to my timeline.      He is so good to remind me that HE is God. He is in complete control of the situation and He will work all things in each of our lives out so that HE is magnified both in our hearts and minds and in the hearts and minds of those whom I know.      How do I respond to Him when I am reminded of these things? How do I respond when He shows me my heart and the incredible self-centeredness of it? How do I respond when He reminds me of His sovereignty over my situation?      I marvel, confess, a

     I was reminded this morning, as I was studying 1st Thessalonians that Paul was giving thanks for the evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the gospel that he saw in the lives of the Thessalonian believers. It reminded me of what Paul prayed for the Ephesians in chapter one, or better yet how he prayed for them. He starts out his prayer in verse 15 thanking the Lord for their faith and their love toward all the saints and then he proceeds to ask the Lord to give them wisdom and understanding in who they are in Christ and of the power they have available to them because they are in Christ. But what a stuck out to me is that Paul’s first thought is that they are believers and that there is evidence of the fruit of the gospel in their lives He doesn’t start with everything that needs correcting or improving (even though what he asks for is biblical). He starts with praising God for who they already are. Paul spends several verses in 1st Thessalonians 1 mentionin

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” ‭‭Galatians‬ ‭4:4-7‬ ‭ “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of

How do you respond when you experience something that makes you feel uncomfortable, not the one in control, and vulnerable? How do you respond when the situation is divinely orchestrated and yet you’ve been taught all of your life that this kind of scenario doesn’t happen anymore, that God doesn’t work this way anymore, that the gift God wants to give you doesn’t exist anymore - that it’s no longer necessary? Are you scared? Leery? Sceptical? Doubting? How long do you argue with God about the legitimacy of it? How much time do you spend in the Word seeking to know what God’s heart truly is, even if it means changing your position on it? How much time do you spend seeking Godly counsel on it? How much time do you spend with Him, not arguing but asking? When do you finally yield and accept the gift He’s offering? This gift was given to strengthen your faith in Him and His ability and to be used to build up the Church. I can tell you from personal experience that one major enemy t

“ And the Word became flesh.” John 1:14 “ And they shall call His name Immanuel, which means, ‘ God with us.’” Matthew 1:23      The broken, busted now. ‘Now’ can feel like a burden. The weight of this broken world and my brokenness in it can drag a soul down. But there is Someone  who inhabits our brokenness with us. He is not ashamed of us (Heb. 2:11). He Himself is our peace (Eph.2:14). He was broken and He is beauty. And, he is in the process of transforming our brokenness into beauty. He works everything out according to the counsel of His will and for the good, that is the transforming of his beloved into his own image. (Romans 8; Ephesians 1). He will not fail to do so nor will he abandon the work of his hands. He will not give up on us and He will never stop loving us, never stop forgiving us, never stop dwelling with us in our broken. He removes our ugly sin as far as the east is from the west and He does it because He loves passionately, jealously, intentionally, zealous

    The Lord has me in the middle of moving yet again in this beautiful state of Colorado.  I have now moved as many times since coming to Colorado as I have over the course of my life before - 7 times before and 7 times since moving here = 14 times. (My sister calls me the Colorado nomad. I have to smile.)      I’m not sure why the Lord hasn’t allowed me to get too comfortable here. It is very unsettling to not have a place to plant your feet and say, “This is home.” I’ve learned to think, “This is home for now,” and just roll with it. (For some reason,  this last move has been so much harder on me than any of the previous moves and I can’t pinpoint exactly why.  I have struggled more with discouragement and a sense of not knowing where I belong, feeling lost and alone.)       In the middle of all of the moving, packing and unpacking, relocating and re-orienting, I realize that there a certain little things that help provide a sense of home and normalcy for me in the differen