The battle has been fierce lately. I can almost see the swords flashing beyond The Veil. Temptation stalking. Wanting me to go back to my old patterns. To give up the ground I have gained in recent months. "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking...
How often do we remain silent, Lord? Wondering about something, yet reluctant -- perhaps even afraid -- to open our mouths and ask a question? A question we fear may reveal our ignorance. Are we convinced this will "confirm" in someone else's mind the destructive self-condemnations we ourselves have memorized? "I'm not smart enough." OR "I'm too...
Last night, terrorists launched numerous, coordinated, simultaneous attacks in Paris, France. Scores of people were murdered, more were injured. Authorities responded. Troops were mobilized. Borders were closed. Curfews imposed. An Act of War. A nation in lock-down. Deadly events in the "natural" -- i.e., the world we can see, hear, smell, taste, touch. As You...
What's the "kilowatt" power of a testimony about one of Your servants, Lord? How could such a testimony fail to light up the whole world??? It's about You, after all! "When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, 'I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the...
I can hardly wait to meet John! Oops... You're right, Lord. That very statement begs the question: "Which one?" At that precise moment, I was meaning John the Baptist. But I could also say, "Yes and Amen!" about meeting John, son of Zebedee... who wrote (under the inspiration of Your Holy Spirit) two books in...
Some people dwell on the past because they are "stuck" there. They can remember a time when their life went "off the rails" and ground to a screeching halt. Maybe it even crashed and burned. And although "life went on" for them, it isn't what you could really define as LIFE. Because no matter where...
In the predawn hours this morning, I didn't know why You sent me to a particular book in the Bible, Lord. Why You had me meditate on a particular passage. Today of all days. Much later, I understood. The passage is one of encouragement... and exhortation. It reflects the ardent prayer of fellow laborers in...
When does customer service become an "art form"? That's easy. When the one serving goes The Extra Mile. Like today... when our cable provider surprised me. We got back home to Florida last night. After our two-day, almost 900-mile drive. WHEW! Talk about two tired puppies! (Plus one kitty, of course). :) We had...
It was only a dream. I was running across a battlefield. Weaving and dodging. Weaving and dodging. The bullets filled the air around me like horizontal rain... passing so close, I could feel the "breeze" of their velocity raise the hair on my neck. The bullets rained. But they did not reign. I remained... unscathed....
We tried to light a fire tonight. After three days of torrential rains, dry wood was nowhere to be found. We had stashed away a few pieces in our shed -- pieces we had gathered last week from the low "river bottom" section of our property. They had dried only partially since then. But the...
