This kind of peace belongs to people with grit, people who trust in the middle of darkest darkness—their own or the world’s. Pollyanna wishing can’t survive here, optimism blows away in the wind.
Praying For Peace
Praying Forgiveness
Forgiveness broadens our territory, a wonderful thing and sometimes frightening as well. It can be like turning the corner on a new road, unfamiliar, our breath may shallow or halt altogether if we can’t discern whether we’ve turned the wrong way on a one way or not. Having recently moved I regularly find myself realizing that there are many places where I simply cannot see beyond my current location, I’ve.. Read More
Praying HOPE: Through The Children’s Eyes (Edition 4)
Hope can seem elusive. It’s shadows are long ones draped across the landscapes of our lives but often instead of perceiving an invitation to adventure chasing toward the light, we hesitate at the darkness of the shadows, as though it is a darkness to be avoided. Children and adventures seem to go hand in hand, they are good at leading the way. I often need their help. Before I ever had.. Read More
How to Pray Continually
Hello Friends! Writing to you today from a different state and address and with a renewed heart. I have thought often of you all and am eager to share the encouragements and gifts that have come my way this past month. Also, delighted to be sharing the same article (by a different title), The Liminal Space of Prayer, over at His Israel this morning. So, let’s jump right in with.. Read More
Why Do The Nations Rage?
Hello friends, I missed writing here last week as my family and I were given some long awaited news that has thrown our normal rhythms into a transplant and replanting process. I’m speaking figuratively, but also literally. Our family of eight will be moving cross-country over the next few weeks! We are very grateful and excited about this as it has been in our hearts and prayers for some time… Read More
God’s Word, and Us, His Children: Gifts, Through the Children’s Eyes
God’s Word is a beautiful, beautiful gift. Did you know that the word “grace” that we learn and see of God in the New Testament is often missed in the Old Testament because it is more often translated as the words “mercy” or “lovingkindness”. I’ve heard it said otherwise though. That this lack of the word “grace” in the O.T. was for a different reason, that it was because Jesus, (Yeshua in.. Read More
The Beauty of Being Known: a.k.a. “Prayer”.
“The prayer preceding all prayers is ‘May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou that I speak to.’” —C.S. Lewis Time passes by us heavy some days. Days can pass and we pass with them like we’re drawn with bowling balls tied around our ankles; not sure whether we were here or there. But, if we have the grace to notice we are here.. Read More
A Martyrs’ Cross Spring Give-Away
Welcome to Spring 2016 friends. What an over-flowing treasure we have to share in everyday the faith of those who have gone before us. “From now on a fire burned within us, as it did in the disciples on the road to Emmaus. ‘Snowflakes cannot fall on a hot stove,’ says an Indian proverb. The coldness of this world could no longer harm us, although we had to pass through bitter.. Read More
Beloved not Perfect: The Way to be Rooted and Grounded Even in the Strange Day We Live
We live in a strange day. Freedom seekers and protectors are portrayed and persecuted as human rights violators. A nation violates freedom while a president watches it’s baseball game. I know it’s not new, it’s all been beneath the sun before, but it’s here now, in our day. Our strange day, our call to preparedness and being a city on a hill, a light not hidden. It could seem hopeless… Read More
Courageous not Qualified: For Such a Time as This
A repeated theme the last few weeks in our home has been a realization that often the most amazing things come through one person being a link to others. And often that one person is not remarkably qualified, rather, simply willing. Very recently, in India, a young believer walked into a village hostile to what they knew of Christianity. He was beat out. This young man, however, has experienced the love of God… Read More