But now I am coming to You; and I am saying these things while I am in the world, so that they may have My joy fulfilled within them. I have given them Your word and the world has hated them; for they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. John 17: 13-14 There are times when we want to escape this nasty, trouble-filled world. Yet, we must stay. But just “staying” is not enough. …
Category: God’s Light
I get pretty wrapped up in this earthy life of day-to-day. I sometimes can act like this is it. That life begins and ends here in my small world. I also sometimes forget the wonderful things God has for me in this here and now on earth. Things He has uniquely equipped and designed me to do. Maybe it’s just to use my optimism to uplift someone at the grocery store or to talk to be compassionate to a friend …
We will rejoice in you and be glad. We will extol your love more than wine. Song of Solomon 1:4 For years I tried to gather up all the diamonds and jewels this world had to offer. I was so obsessed with gathering up material things that I was oblivious to God’s abundant goodness and beauty all around me. He was around me all the time with eternal treasure, yet I was blind and uninterested. This poem is about that …
I’m learning a lot about God’s intense, caring and personal love. In the course of my short cancer journey (March 2021) I have experienced God’s love in many ways, the deep love of God through friends and the love of the Lord in other ways like by sitting quietly on our patio in His presence. I am thinking there are a lot of ways to experience His grand love. For me, right now, it seems to mainly come in two …
I’ve been reading a devotional book by Randy Alcorn that features portions of sermons by the great Charles Spurgeon. The book is on heaven and it describes beautiful and profound aspects of heaven in a real and tangible way. You may be like the Apostle Paul and yearn for that place, yet God has a plan for us here on planet earth. But one day….one day, we shall see as never before and experience a love so deep we cannot …
God’s Sycamore Song You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12 (NIV) God’s voice, or song, can be heard and experienced in many ways, but for me significantly in nature. The way trees move to and fro, the way ocean waves crash in a rhythm and the hypnotic sound of crickets on …
For anyone who has been in some pain or grief, this poem is for you. I pray it reminds you that the darkness can bring about the unity and purity of your heart with God’s. I have seldom reached the bottomless pit or “dark night of the soul”, but pray that if you are in that place, you will know of His grand love and care, even in the midst of your doubt, hurt, pain or grief. I pray you …
For many years I trusted God but resisted His pull for my whole heart. I would (and still can) so easily turn from God to pursue my own way. It was as though some days I was living life on a razors’ edge – a non-committal place, yet a place of tremendous peril. In this poem I try to convey the two sides – the pain and darkness of turning away and the light and joy of being …
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” -Hebrews 4:12 …
Sometime early in the fall, the earth begins to tip upward and those of us in North America begin the march toward winter, when the sun is furthest from the earth. Moving away from the sun, brings on cold temperatures. Sap that once easily moved in trees to supply life, eventually slows down and leaves get less and less nutrients, so they turn colors and die. Leaves fall to the ground and pile up everywhere. The formerly lush green …