A Word of Encouragement

"Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your ways to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun." Psalms 37:3-6

God is good. God is just. Even when it seems like the wicked are advancing and it feels like God has forgotten about us we can rest assured that Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead. When He does come to judge the whole world you had better have asked for forgiveness before that. If you don't, it will be too late.

But be encouraged if you have been forgiven. God will not leave you or forsake you. He loves you and will make your "righteousness shine like the dawn."

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What Is Your Purpose?

A couple weeks ago, a young woman asked me, "what is your purpose?" it kind of threw me off. Ok, it really threw me off. It seemed a bit touché to say "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" when she was looking for specifics. And I get why she's asking. My life does seem pretty random. Thirty-two years old, working on my BA, teaching music part time, working at a coffee shop part time, and living at least an hour from my closest family member. On paper it looks...well...it looks random. I get it. Kind of hard to pull a purpose out of the randomness. I was talking to the Lord about it because sometimes, even for myself, the person living this life, it's hard to find a specific purpose in the randomness. Sometimes I wonder, when I get to Heaven if I'm going to have anything to offer God, if while other people show up with their kids, I'm going to hold out empty hands and say "it's just me." I mean, if He wants soldiers to defeat spiri...

Body Image (1)

Contentedly situated in lawn chairs with our toes in the sand and the baby playing on a blanket at our feet, my friend and I watch her girls digging holes or running between the beach and the lake. Periodically, the girls run up to us to display the shells and rocks they've found. At one point, as the girls surround us, one of us adults comments on the baby being chubby (which she is, as a baby should be) after which one of the girls looks at me and says, "you're kind of chubby." She wasn't trying to be rude or smart, she was just being bluntly observant as children are. As I looked at I her and considered an answer, I thought of the baggage of body image that women have carried for generations, and I thought, I don't want her to carry this baggage too. I want better for her. I replied, "you know, being a little chubby is actually a good thing. Our bodies function better and it helps keep us warm." This deep lesson was probably lost on her as she s...

Personal Pragmatism

Pragmatism is the philosophy that believes things have value based on their effectiveness; the idea that if something works it is right. Usefulness is most important. And this philosophy is thriving in our culture today, partly because it is so sneaky. Of course we want to use systems that are effective and produce good results, but the danger lies in only valuing something or someone for what they can do. For example, certain people are not very useful, therefore it is okay to remove them from society; or taking care of one's home does not bring in money, therefore it is not as valuable as work that does produce money. John Snyder says that "in religion, pragmatism values God; but it values Him because He is the most useful of all beings. He can empower us to accomplish our goals--world evangelism, healthy families, personal fulfillment, moral excellence--whatever they are. A useful God is the pragmatist's great desire. Though hard to spot at times, the shift from worsh...

by jot and tittle

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