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Does God bring good out of bad? “God causes all things to work together for good…” All things means ALL things, Everything apparently good. Everything apparently bad. The truly bad. The good, the bad, the horrible. ALL things. … to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) The familiar promise…

You are a gift. Yep. I’m a gift, too. Sounds conceited, doesn’t it? Jesus says repeatedly that the Father gave us to Jesus. We are the Father’s love gift to Jesus. In my self-critical mode, I say: “Boy! Some gift!” But it is gloriously true. We are gifts Right now we, Christ-followers, belong to both the Father…

Joy in the journey. Joy over the shining mountain passes and through the deep, dark valleys. Joy on the sunny days and through the stormy ones. Our Lord Jesus Christ came that we might have abundant life and that our joy may be full. (John 10:10, 15:14, 16:24, 17:13) But how? What do we do to have joy…

Rejoice! It is all about Him. It’s not about me. It’s not about you. It is all about our mighty, holy, loving God. Aren’t you glad? God made you. You are His child. You are valuable to Him. As your Father, He has a commitment to you. He acts for His Name’s Sake God acts…

Are you having a hard time? A bad time? Have you had a huge disappointment? An earth-shaking loss? I wish it were otherwise. If I were God, you and I would have easy, satisfying, fun lives, without hardship or scarcity. But I’m not God (duh), and my choices would not be good ones. Among other…

Do you believe God? I’m not asking if you believe in God. I’m asking if you believe what He says. Who or what is your authority for how you interpret what is happening: To you? To your loved ones? To your country? To the world? Do you test what you believe? How do you test? What standard do you…

Gram’s heart was broken. When another adult daughter died, she wailed: “What did I do so bad to deserve this?” It was a body-blow pain. Explaining your pain We’ve all  hurt. How we explain pain determines much about how well we handle it. We can speak truth to ourselves. Or we can tell ourselves lies.…

“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” Yogi Berra If you don’t care where you’re going, “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.” Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland On the other hand, if you want to be intentional about how you live, and you care where you’re going,…

The end of the year is a good time to slow down and take stock. As the sun sets on 2014, how do you think you did? STOP! I can hear many of you, just like me, shift into critical mode. We can be our own worst enemies. But if you believe in Jesus Christ,…