grateful for Christ

Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;
say to those with fearful hearts,
“Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you.
- Isaiah 35:3-4
Be bold and courageous in faith, and never waver in love.  Take firm hold of God; grasp His robe, and you need [...]

Something God has been working with me on for a while has been freedom of spirit.  It’s too early for me to be able to say much about it.  What I will say is that it is hard.  But it’s also good, and that’s what I want to try to write about.
Ask yourself:  Is there [...]

Brrr!  The rain actually came two days early around here (Portland, Oregon), but the cold struck today with a vengeance.
Fall tends to put me into a reflective mood.  When late evening rolls around, I go out and sit on the deck and think/pray.  It makes me wonder where, exactly, I am in life.  Is this [...]

For whatever reason, God has given me the gift of knowing Him, and along with that, a few other things.  I am only now learning what they are and how to use them.  This post is about a particular gift that I do not know what to call.
Basically, the gift is that I am usually [...]

There are many things that I find enjoyable or rewarding in different ways.  Photography is interesting, programming is stimulating, and researching my thesis is filled with purpose, edification, and a sense of accomplishment.  All that is great, but, aside from praying, nothing seems to be as therapeutic as sharing what God has given me with [...]

In His great wisdom, God created people to need one another.  Though He could more than sufficiently fill all our needs–as indeed He does when we have nobody else, He chooses to have us draw from the measure of Christ that is in our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Part of this involves being comforted.  [...]

I’m posting this for the benefit of a family member to whom I recommended this book and who needs it ASAP, but I decided to post it publicly because the book has some good insights on communication, especially within conflict.  I’m not sure that I agree with everything that I have read so far (I’ve [...]

May it be said of us Christians that we are weak and foolish, for in these God is strong and wise.  That “God’s power is made perfect in weakness” is not merely an encouraging bible verse to be printed on inspirational magnets and bookmarks; rather, it is the reminder for us that there are no [...]

This was the sunrise on the worst day of my life, when the love of my life and I parted ways.  At the time, God used its beauty to comfort me, but as I look at it now I see only doom and trouble.  My hope is in the Lord, who restores all that is [...]

As the world waits to see if the U.S. presidential elections in November will result in the advent of the latest political messiah or the inauguration of the devil, the thought occurred to me today that since neither candidate fits the ideological bill that today’s Christians think would make a good president, it is time [...]