John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will.” New Living Translation The word ‘surrender’ makes us uncomfortable and it is probably not the first word that comes to mind at Christmas! We associate surrender with loss, quitting or throwing in the towel. No one wants to put their hands up in the air, wave the ...
Read More“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law..“
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The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love. This divine love is deposited into the life of the Christian and should be obvious by their conduct. Anyone can say that they know God, but it is the way they live that shows whether or not they have a Spirit-filled life. If the Holy Spirit owns you, you cannot be anything less than an instrument of His loving hands and feet ...
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What’s your family’s favorite Christmas Tradition? That’s a question I always ask in artist interviews around this time of year. Mark Hall, of Casting Crowns, gave me one that is absolutely theft worthy. When his children were younger, he started the Christmas Tradition of hiding pieces of their Nativity Set. The family would then search for the pieces like an Easter Egg Hunt! Here’s where it gets really creative: whatever piece you find, you ...
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Christmas presents the best opportunity for a glorious season to be interrupted by a travel nightmare. But our Christmas travel challenges are nothing compared to those faced by a young couple in Galilee more than two thousand years ago
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My dog, Oakley, would play tug-o-war and fetch 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if we played along with her. She especially loves the tug-o-war part. The moment we come and sit down in the living room…there she is with her favorite toy, ready to play. And as soon as you take ahold of the end that she offers you – it’s on! She will twist, pull, tug, ...
Read MoreBehold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus … and they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. –Luke 24:13-14
Read MoreYou can have Christmas without Santa and his elves, without Frosty the snowman, without Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, and without Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. You can have Christmas without Mr. Grinch, Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim. But you cannot have a real Christmas without Jesus. Otherwise, it’s a fake Christmas.
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"I'll wait with you at the hospital." "I want to see your performance." "I'll come hang out with you." There's magic in those three statements, don't you think? The gift of your presence is a treasure, especially in a world that values independence, and where we know more people via social media than face-to-face. One of my favorite themes at Christmastime is the fact that Jesus was called, Emmanuel, which means, "God with us." ...
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