Recent Devotions
“In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (I Thessalonians 5:18). When I opened my mailbox one afternoon, a mysterious envelope lay inside. There was no stamp, no return address, in fact no address of any sort. Across the face of the envelope was written in an unfamiliar hand, “To thank you.” Of course, of all the mail received that day, I opened that envelope first. The inside was no more revealing than the outside. All it contained was two well-worn dollar bills. No note, no name. Nothing. Months later the envelope…
And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:2-3, ESV) Have you ever noticed how easily children make friends? Take one…
“Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips” (Psalm 141:3). “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Unfortunately, this childish chant is not true. Our words have power: power to hurt, power to heal. To understand this power,…
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“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6 When I read this verse and break it down, it tells so many wonderful attributes of God. First, He is wonderful. The definition of wonderful is “inspiring delight, pleasure or admiration. Extremely good; marvellous” Doesn’t that sound just like God? Next, He is our counsellor. We can bring our needs, hurts, dreams, and worry’s to Him – free of judgement and only given love…
“And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” Genesis 3:8-9 Every day God had a set time when he came down to the Garden and spent some time with Adam and Eve. No doubt they looked forward to this every day, a chance to communicate with their Creator and tell Him about what they had…
“Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2, New English Translation). Sync — short for synchronize: to set two things to the same time or value, or to update a database shared by two devices (urbandictionary.com). To live in this digital age, we often find it necessary to sync our various electronic devices. I wear a fitness tracker; and when I go to the app on my phone, it tells me it is “syncing and refreshing.” Soon my cell phone shows…
“The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever” Isaiah 40:8 My oldest daughter had an upset belly just this last weekend. She felt sick, and began to panic that she would be sick and I could not get her to calm down and think sensibly. The worst of it was over, but she was still anxious and afraid. I tried everything I knew to do as a Mom. I sat with her and held her close. We prayed together numerous times. I told her everything would be okay, but she still was panicked.…
