Our God is a God who delights in His people. Many may have difficulty with the scripturally verified concept of God the Father’s delight in us, but what a difference it makes in our self-perception whether we do or don’t live our lives under this truth. Isaiah 62:4 says in the English Standard Version “You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is In Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you.” … read more

“Jesus told him, ‘If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions” (Matthew 19:21-22 NLT). What do you do when Jesus asks more of you than you want to give? We want our response to always be a full-hearted “yes” to our Lord, but sometimes He asks something of us that causes us to hesitate. … read more

It is our privilege as beloved children of God and as followers of Christ to be seated with Christ in the realm of the heavenly places. No one can remove us from that position but we can be lured away from being mindful of such great divine favor. A funny little visual I’ve been carrying around in my heart lately is seeing my legs and feet inside Jesus’ legs and feet, with all my personal named enemies under our feet jointly. I think it’s important to be cognizant of our enemies … read more

My mother passed away last month, and as Christmas approaches, I’m filled with memories of her, of how she lived her life, and of how much she loved her children. One of my favorite memories is from my early childhood. My mother and father attended a Methodist church at the time, and at Christmas they always put a manger scene beneath our Christmas tree. My father made the wooden stall himself as he was an artist and loved working with wood. My mother would drive an hour to Indianapolis every Christmas season and buy one or two figurines to fill the manger scene with. … read more

There are spiders that occasionally spin their webs across the front walkway to our house. It is unnerving to feel that sticky substance attach itself to my skin as I unknowingly walk through one of their webs on the way to my car. Immediately I do the “spider dance” trying to get that web and any possible spiders off of me as quickly as possible. I don’t like being caught in their snare, even though in my rational mind I know I’m bigger than they are and that their web is no real threat to me. Our adversary is much like a spider that weaves a nearly invisible web to catch its prey. He hopes to “catch” us in his carefully woven web of lies and deceit. Some traps and snares are very obvious and can be easily seen and avoided. Read this article by Lisa Cooke

The Weymouth New Testament version of Ephesians 4:16 says “Dependent on Him, the whole body—it’s various parts closely fitting and firmly adhering to one another—grows by the aid of every contributory link, with power proportioned to the need of each individual part, so as to build itself up in a spirit of love.” The phrase—grows by the aid of every contributory link—reminds me how valuable every single person in the Body of Christ is to the grand plan that God has orchestrated concerning our time spent here on earth. The word “contributory” is defined as “playing a part to bring something about.” How are we as members of the Body of Christ to play a part and to aid in bringing something about? Read this article by Lisa Cooke

How big IS your brave? It’s OK if you feel this is an area you need and want to grow in. There is no condemnation in this question, it’s only meant to cause us to take a moment and examine ourselves to see where we are on the spectrum. Is your brave level lower than you want? How big do you want your brave to be? … read more

Are you praying for an unsaved loved one, a prodigal, or someone who has lost their way in their Christianity? Have you ever prayed that a laborer would “cross their path,” speaking the needed wisdom into his or her life? I have prayed many times for laborers to have an influence in my loved ones’ lives, based on Matthew 9:38 that the Lord would send out laborers into His harvest. … read more

Psalm 31:19 “How great is the goodness you have stored up for those who fear you. You lavish it on those who come to you for protection, blessing them before the watching world” (NLT). The world needs, has always needed, to observe people who are confident in and experiencing God’s goodness.  King David was one of those people. In Psalm 27:13 (NLT) he says, “Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living.” David had faith that God would be good to him in the midst of all of earth’s trials and tribulations. … read more

Easter of course is another time when we give our attention to what Jesus did for us on the cross and in His resurrection. Some of us will participate in the Lenten season where daily the emphasis is put on preparing our hearts for the fullness of all that was accomplished by our Christ. …read more

Greatness. The internal itch to amount to something in life. I would guess practically every human being has this deep desire to be known for some type of accomplishment or skill, or natural beauty. We admire those who have achieved greatness in some form in this world and will often find ourselves comparing our lives with these success stories. …read more