Call Me Bitter

What follows is something the Lord started dealing with me about just the other night.  It’s rather unrefined but I wanted to share it anyway. *** The book of Ruth opens with a story about a woman named Naomi.  Naomi moves to Moab with her husband because there is a famine in Israel.  Naomi and…

Read More

A (Not So) Happy Mother’s Day

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day, a day when many of us celebrate our mothers and wives.  As tomorrow approaches, I am reminded of a number of people I know who have lost children–due to miscarriage, still birth, accidents or unexplained reasons.  Perhaps this is true of others who follow The Voice of One.  I cannot fathom such…

Read More

Given Like a Star, Given Like a Tree

The Starry Night (Vincent Van Gogh) The following is something I wrote in my journal four or five years ago. *** I don’t know how to put this into words, so I won’t even try to do it well… I was sitting outside tonight, enjoying my yard, enjoying the night.  Suddenly, the world was opened…

Read More

Little Dr. Christiansteins

“You bring stolen, lame, or sick animals. You bring this as an offering! Am I to accept that from your hands?” asks the Lord. (Malachi 1:13). This verse addresses the Levites.  The Levites were the priests of Israel, the keepers and teachers of God’s law.  They knew that sacrificing a defective animal violated the law (Lev. 1:3, 10)….

Read More

Thought for the Day….

The willingness to part with one’s life is the greatest power in the universe.  This is God, for God is love, and we know what love is because He laid down His life for us (1 John 3:16, 4:16).

The Hall and the Vision

Back in October, I wrote about the day I was born again.  That was a powerful experience.  But I wasn’t ready to follow the Lord afterwards.  The next four years, there was little evidence of Christ in me.  I investigated Taoism and made a go at practicing Buddhism.  My personal life continued in its immoral,…

Read More

‘Tis So Sweet

I’ve had the hymn, “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” on my mind today.  There are a couple things I love about it. One, it speaks of the restful, abiding relationship we have in Christ.  He is the vine, we are the branches.  We need only live in Him and draw from Him (John…

Read More

No Greater Love

Image from The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson, 2004) In the garden of Gethsemane, tears and bloody sweat dripped from Jesus’s face.  He was praying hard, asking if there was any way out of the cross: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.  Yet not as I will, but as…

Read More

The More I Come to Know You–Musical Guest Post

Emee O’Reilly is a dear friend and leads worship at our church.  Over the years, the Lord has given her many songs.  Emee’s music has a way of bypassing all my defenses.  There is a quality about it that leaves me completely vulnerable before the Lord.  Today’s post features a song from her album, The Alabaster…

Read More