Philippians 4 For Paul, joy is a defining attribute of the church. Does “joy” characterize the church today? If you knocked on the door of one of your non-Christian neighbors and asked them how they would describe Christians, would they say that Christians are people marked by a deep, consistent sense of joy? Would people […]
Titus 3:4-7 (NLT) I have a friend who usually has one or more projects he works on just to keep busy. His latest project was restoring an old piece of furniture that someone was actually going to throw into a trash pile. I suppose they just thought it would take too much time and effort […]
1 Thessalonians 5:14 (NIV) Most of us are impatient for God to grant us the desires of our hearts. Usually, we know what we want and we want it now; right now if not sooner. But God may have other plans. When God’s plan differs from ours, we must trust in His infinite wisdom and […]
Philippians 3:12 We notice two things when we read today’s scripture. First, Jesus first pressed to take hold of us. We learn Christianity is not something we take up, it takes us up. Second, it conjures up a few questions. Does this mean every Christian must have a dramatic conversion experience? How do we know […]
Luke 6:38 (NLT) As I finish up the task of taking my Christmas tree down and packing the decorations away, I started thinking about the new year, how excited I am and looking forward to a fresh start and wondering what God has in store for me. The more I thought about it, the more […]
Every night before going to bed, I check on each of my three children by opening their bedroom doors to make sure they are fast asleep. It is in those moments, I am able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing they are okay and are sleeping peacefully. As a mom, it can be overwhelming […]
Philippians 2 One of the things we learn from our scripture today is that there are three realities about Jesus that allow us to be Joyful; first, Jesus was fully God. Since Jesus is God we can rejoice because we can be more optimistic about our future. Second, Jesus became fully human. Because Jesus is […]
Philippians 1:3-11 (NLT) I like those Shrek movies and the other night while watching one with my daughter a conversation between Donkey and Shrek stuck out to me as interesting ; Shrek Says: “For your information, there’s a lot more to ogres than people think!! Layers, onions have layers. Ogres have layers. We both have […]
Ephesians 2:10 (NIV) Have you ever met or known a “quirky” person? Someone who has an odd style or wears funny hats for different seasons or holidays? There is a lady I work with that I actually have known for quite some time, and she has always been a little odd to say the least. […]
Philippians 1 We have to admit everyone wants happiness, we want to rejoice. In this chapter of Philippians we learn two truths that Paul teaches us on how to rejoice no matter what; first, belonging to a real community helps us rejoice. Second, Paul teaches it is not the circumstances of our life, but rather […]