When you are addicted to more, whatever you have is never enough.

Is life always about being entertained?!

Lenten Prayer

“O Lord and Master of my Life,
Take away from me the spirit of laziness,
faint-heartedness, lust for power, and idle talk.
Instead grant me, your servant,
the spirit of purity, humility, patience, and love.
Yes, Lord and King,
give me the power to see my own faults
and not to judge my brother.
For You are blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.”

What trial's are building your character these days?

Flow

"Trying to do the Lord's work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you." Corrie Ten Boom

God gave Himself up for Lent.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!

Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.

Neighbour: a person who lives near another.

Good Neighbour: a person who shows kindliness or helpfulness toward his or her fellow humans.

Would you be considered a 'good neighbour' in your community?

Or are you more of an 'unknown neighbour'?

“Give to us grace, O Father, not to pass by suffering or joy without eyes to see; give us understanding and sympathy; and guard us from selfishness that we may enter into the joys and sufferings of others; use us to gladden and strengthen those who are weak and suffering; that by our lives we may help others who believe and serve you, and project your light which is the light of life.” (H.R.L. Sheppard)

Apart from Him...

we can do nothing.

feeling sluggish?

DREAM BIG

What are you running from?

What are you chasing after?

You otter learn to be humble...

"When you're invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place. Then when the host comes he may very well say, 'Friend, come up to the front.' That will give the dinner guests something to talk about!

What I'm saying is, If you walk around with your nose in the air, you're going to end up flat on your face. But if you're content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself." (Jesus, Luke 14:11)

It's a beautiful day.

You have given so much to me, give me one more thing – a grateful heart. (G. Herbert)

Do you forget whose you are?

Place these words on your hearts. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. Teach them to your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night.

Inscribe them on the doorposts and gates of your cities so that you'll live a long time, and your children with you, on the soil that God promised to give your ancestors for as long as there is a sky over the Earth.

proper fear

Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.

Is peace a fact or a feeling?

Philippians 4:6-7
Don't worry about anything. Instead, tell God about everything. Ask and pray. Give thanks to him. Then God's peace will watch over your hearts and your minds because you belong to Christ Jesus. God's peace can never be completely understood.

My dog loves better than I do...

If religion in man is based only on a feeling of total dependence, then a dog is the best Christian. (Hegel)

Maybe we can learn a thing or two about love & significance from man's best friend...

Looks like stormy weather...

Teacher, is it nothing to you that we're going down?

Clear my thoughts,

Calm my thinking, and
Dwell in my heart.

Don't Miss The Bus

Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message. M. Muggeridge

Ultimate Survival

Faith, like fire, isn't always easy.

Have you tasted life and found it bittersweet?

All the persons of faith I know are sinners, doubters, uneven performers. Neither our feelings of depression nor the facts of suffering nor the possibilities of defection are evidence that God has abandoned us. (E. Peterson)

not for long...

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak. (gk chesterton)

How many times do I have to tell you it's all about persistence.

Hebrews 12

¹ A huge cloud of witnesses is all around us. So let us throw off everything that stands in our way. Let us throw off any sin that holds on to us so tightly. Let us keep on running the race marked out for us.

² Let us keep looking to Jesus. He is the author of faith. He also makes it perfect. He paid no attention to the shame of the cross. He suffered there because of the joy he was looking forward to. Then he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

³ He put up with attacks from sinners. So think about him. Then you won't get tired. You won't lose hope.

Learn to struggle well with life.

"Know this: those who live by faith will struggle in ways that those who live to make their lives work will never know. It is that struggle, to believe despite desperate pain and confusion that a good plan is unfolding, that will open your eyes to see Me more clearly. Is that what you want? Will you pay the price?

The price is this: you will tremble in agony as you live in a sinful, self-prioritizing world. You will learn to wait in emptiness and frustrated desire for My plan of love to reveal itself. With confidence in Me and hope in My plan, you will not only feel the pain of living in the valley but also see My glory from the mountaintop of faith.

Only those who struggle in confusion and wait in hope will be strengthened to struggle well and to wait with confidence.

Struggle well! Wait in hope!" (Larry Crabb, God's Love Letters to You)

Hebrews 12:11-13
God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

So don't sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!

winter solace

Psalm 40

A David Psalm

^1-3 I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
to make sure I wouldn't slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
they enter the mystery,
abandoning themselves to God.

^16-17 But all who are hunting for you—
oh, let them sing and be happy.
Let those who know what you're all about
tell the world you're great and not quitting.
And me? I'm a mess. I'm nothing and have nothing:
make something of me.
You can do it; you've got what it takes—
but God, don't put it off.

happy feet

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

The Rescue

^3-5All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.

lettuce pray...

O Lord, reassure me with Your quickening Spirit; without You I can do nothing. Mortify in me all ambition, vanity, vainglory, worldliness, pride, selfishness, and resistance from God, and fill me with love, peace, and all the fruits of the Spirit.

O Lord, I know not what I am, but to You I flee for refuge.
I would surrender myself to You, trusting Your precious promises and against hope believing in hope.

You are the same yesterday, today, and forever; and therefore, waiting on the Lord, I trust that I shall at length renew my strength. (W. Wilberforce)

Get roped to the Father...

Psalm 121

A Pilgrim Song

^1-2 I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

^3-4 He won't let you stumble,
your Guardian God won't fall asleep.
Not on your life! Israel's
Guardian will never doze or sleep.

^5-6 God's your Guardian,
right at your side to protect you—
Shielding you from sunstroke,
sheltering you from moonstroke.

^7-8 God guards you from every evil,
he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
he guards you now, he guards you always.