Isaiah 57:1 tells us “The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.” Charles Stanley says “we will never know until heaven how many godly men and women have died early in life as a result of God’s grace.”

Many times we view death as a punishment. Even those of us who are seasoned Christians will fight it tooth and nail, cit...

Have you ever heard the expression, “the more things change the more they stay the same?” If I had to choose one sentence to describe life, this would be it. And what a challenge it can be to embrace the inconsistency of our human condition.

In a blink, our children go from toddlers to teenagers and our whole world is upended. What fifteen years? Wasn’t it just fifteen minutes ago that we were changing their diapers and they were looking ...

I hope that today you are enjoying the loving laughter of family and eating more food than is technically good for you. But many are in a position where they are just struggling to find a warm place to land. Last night we had an intruder at the church. The young woman didn't come to do any harm, she was just looking for warmth. As I watched the police gently work with her, I couldn't help but wonder where her family was, and what circumstance had brought her to push her way into a closed chur...

Sometimes things don’t go exactly as we’ve planned. We get busy with this or that, trip over the dog and break a bone, have a little less in the bank than we’d thought, or just have a fussy toddler that doesn’t want to cooperate with us leaving for church in the morning. And those are just the little things.

Then there’s the big stuff. A life-threatening medical diagnosis or death in the family, the loss of a job or home, hurricane, earthquake,...

Discouragement is difficult to avoid these days. Mental health issues, addiction and anxiety are on the rise – even among Christians. A news broadcast can make us feel fearful and uncertain, and a sense of isolation is more common than not. When you add to that some of the natural circumstances of our human condition – failing health, financial strain, relationship tension – it’s hard not to be discouraged.

We all have a yearning to be in control of our own des...

Here we go! We’re officially entering into the Christmas season. No sooner had the Thanksgiving leftovers been stowed in the fridge than I started decorating. I hauled out my old tree, which is being retired this year (nothing a little duct tape can’t mend for the season), the many ornaments from years gone by, so MANY lights, and all the little bits of foil and ribbon that have somehow managed to get stashed into the Christmas storage boxes.

I don’t know what it is ...

Thanksgiving is upon us! What are you most thankful for… beyond the grace and love of God? I am so grateful for my family, both biological and spiritual, a warm and beautiful home that God gifted me with, my health which is pretty robust for a nearly 65-year-old grandma, and the ability to recognize all the amazing things and people God has placed in my life.

Being part of our big, noisy, malfunctioning (sometimes) family is both an enormous blessing and a huge responsibility &#...

This morning my devotions brought me to 1 Peter 2:15-16. Because I had been working on a sermon, my bible app was open to the Message bible, a translation of scripture that I use from time to time because the language is so down to earth. It read: “Make the Master proud of you by being good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God’s emissaries for keeping order. It is God’s will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who ...

In Mark 9 we read about a man who came to Jesus to ask for healing for his son who, as scripture describes it, “has a mute spirit.” Later, Jesus says the boy is possessed by an “unclean” spirit. We know from other scripture passages that an unclean spirit can affect its host in many physical and emotional ways.

It’s more than just the Hollywood portrayal we’ve seen. There is true warfare going on around us right now – both on earth and in th...

I’m so grateful for my salvation. I’m proud to call myself a Christian, and while not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, I can say for sure that I am not unaware of the price that was paid so that I could claim myself a child of God.

I think we conceptually understand what it means to be saved, and are forever changed by what this gift gives to us. It opens a door that offers freedom from our past, strength to get through our present, and the security of knowing th...