Focus on Eternity

     Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.  The Bible is no different, but the Bible isn’t just another story or collection of stories.  The Bible represents our hope, but it is often ignored.  Whether spoken through the Prophets or revealed in a written format, this has been a problem throughout the ages, ignoring the Word of God.  Maybe you struggle with finding time to pick up your Bible at regular intervals to see what God wishes to reveal to you. Perhaps you are using a daily devotional, a podcast, or even a blog post as a substitute, rather than delving directly into the Word of God.        I am excited that this month, I am revisiting one of my favorite accounts of history, one that is worthy of my eyes to see again and again.  It is the one that seems to influence my resolve to act in faith.  It moves my faith from head knowledge to the pages of this blog.  It is the motivation behind my writing.  Just like the creation story found in the book of Genesis,

Burdens in the World       This morning I sat in a local coffee shop with my daily Bible devotion as the motivation for how I would spend the next hour.  The Lord, instead, allowed me to observe the human condition as the backdrop to my study.  Generally I meet with a small group of ladies on Wednesday mornings to participate in an informal Bible study we call a Life Group.  I anticipated a solo journey today as I studied passages found in Nehemiah, the Psalms, and Luke.  I decided to go to the coffee shop just in case someone I was not expecting might show up.  My study would have been so much easier sitting at my kitchen table enjoying a steamy Keurig brew.          I often experience very uplifting conversations on Wednesday mornings as the Life Group heightens my awareness that God is speaking truth, not only in my life, but also in the lives of those who fellowship with me.  Although we extract many different things from the same text, it is apparent that God is at work te

  I find it fascinating how Scriptures can give us ongoing dialogue with God if we allow His word to speak into our lives.  This past Friday I wrote an article about increasing our puny faith taken from the gospel according to Luke.  A typical article takes far longer for me to edit than to write.  Not quite ready for prime time, I took the weekend to read and re-write my piece.  I wanted to make sure my message was clear.  Honestly, sometimes when I read my own writing it is like I’m writing in a foreign language.  I shake my head wondering what point I was trying to make as I unscramble sentences and delete paragraphs.  Sometimes I start over from scratch.  This time was no exception.  It took a lot of patience on my part to make as many corrections as possible before I hit the send button.  Sometimes I feel like the queen of grammatical error, but faith in what God wants to say through my writing drives me to continue.  I know that God can use my imperfections for His glory.  Than

     Because we have had so much rain over the past several weeks, the parking lot at our middle school was flooded.  The proximity of the lake and the excessive water filling the lake caused water to spill over the banks and come to rest in the place where school busses normally park.  As I took my daughter to her evening sport, we received notice that practice had been moved to another location away from the flood zone.  Noticing that busses were parked around the circumference of the rising water it reminded me of covered wagons circled in the wild west to protect sojourners from danger.       Today I found the same experience as I read the 17 th chapter of Luke.  It seemed like one lesson stood out hoping to gain more of my attention.  However, when I looked at the teachings that circled this one idea, I found a far different lesson than the one I had originally acquired.  It was as though the surrounding passages were spilling over the banks wishing for me to see the primary