Posts Tagged "love"

  Four minutes in, I discovered the truth: small children are terrible at picking strawberries. There we were, two families with kids and a single guy, exploring a “U-Pick” strawberry patch on a sunny Sunday afternoon.  The air was cool and dry and the sky was clear with a bright sun overhead, streaming down on fields of ripe, red, ready-to-eat strawberries just waiting to be picked. Then there they went, the two-year-old and the six-year-old, ready to try their hand at field work and eager to fill their buckets with the juicy delights of (almost) spring. The older one did great.  Her six-year-old eyes quickly distinguished the good fruit from the bad, and her nimble fingers had no trouble separating stem from stalk.  The younger one…...

“Why won’t this stupid thing work???” I had been so blessed when my friends gave me their old Playstation 3 video game console, even though the disc drive didn’t work.  I’d heard that replacement parts were available online for cheap, and I’ve been known to do a bit of fix-up work on electronics before. Maybe this time I could actually make it work! I ordered the replacements.  A neighbor and I disassembled the machine and removed the old parts.  The new ones arrived a few days later and I installed them with great anticipation. I re-fastened the dark translucent plastic cover and plugged in the thick black power cord.  One switch, then the press of a button and viola!  At least I hadn’t broken the whole...

Do you ever fear God might abandon you? “I will keep Your statutes; do not utterly forsake me!” -Psalm 119:8 I used to worry that God might leave me if I didn’t do what I was supposed to, but today there’s not a place in my heart that is afraid of that at all.  I don’t have to ask Him not to forsake me; I know He won’t! How can I be so sure? Because when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) it was a cry that meant two things.  It was a sign of my despair on His shoulders, and a promise of His triumph on my behalf.  It meant that He was taking my place, bearing the abandonment that I should have experienced for my sin. If you have trusted Christ for salvation, then you can...

Do you ever wish you had more confidence to do what God’s called you to do? “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”  -2 Timothy 1:6-7 Because it is God’s Spirit that dwells in us, we can have confidence in moving forward into all He has called us to do.  If it truly is His Spirit that is leading us, then He has also already provided everything we need to accomplish everything He’s instructed us! His gift is a flame to bring light to the world.  The Bible says that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16a), so He’s certainly...

Do you ever find it hard to just “hang in there?” We heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” -Colossians 1:4-5 Sometimes it’s hard to have faith when the world around us is so disappointing. Often it’s truly hard to love others, because let’s face it: sometimes people just make themselves hard to love. Yet, something happens when the heart begins to dwell on the hope of the glorious future Jesus promises His people.  We look to a life and a world with no more pain, sorrow or suffering, no more disappointments or letdowns or betrayals, and that hope has a way of strengthening the soul. If I know deliverance is coming, then I  know I...