Advent started early for me this year. Actually Advent 2014 began a month ago when I signed a contract to write an Advent devotional book for Barbour Publishing. With a deadline looming, I have been deeply pondering and cherishing the Christmas story long before the leaves fell from the trees and the turkey began to defrost. Advent 2013 starts this coming Sunday. What a wonderful time to look past the commercial craziness of Christmas shopping and partying to embrace the Christ Child and his good news for all of us. I hope each of you take some moments the next few weeks to walk with God, listen to his story and rejoice in his salvation. Here are some resources to help light your journey to Bethlehem this year: 1. Did you know in the Celtic traditions, they begin celebrating Advent 40 days before Christmas? Here is an interesting website with some ideas and information about this type of approach to Advent. 2. Creighton University's Online Ministries has … [Read more...]
Whetting our appetite for Thanksgiving with 10 Inspiring Quotes
Last year I shared 10 Thanksgiving quotes and found a few more this year to share with you. The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. ~H.U. Westermayer Blessings are oftentimes not valued till they are gone. - Thomas Fuller Gratitude is the memory of the heart. - Massieu Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melody Beattie “When you drink the water, remember the well.” Chinese proverb "Gratitude is the sign of noble souls." Aesop “Perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealized blessings than for those we once enjoyed or those we enjoy now.” A. W. Tozer You say grace before meals. All … [Read more...]
Change Me, Oh God – Quote of the Week
Change me, oh God, Into a tree in autumn And let my dying Be a blaze of glory! Drape me in a Crimson, leafy gown, And deck my soul In dancing flakes of gold! And then when Death Comes by, and with his hands Strips off my rustling garment Let me stand Before him, proud and naked, Unashamed, uncaring, All the strength in me revealed Against the sky! Oh, God Make me an autumn tree If I must die! Esther Pope, 1896-1958 … [Read more...]
Autumn – Quote of the Week
For the apparent disappearance of many plants and animals, autumn is often seen as an end. But the seasons are part of a continuum, a revolving process of birth, death, and renewal — and if such could be said to have any beginning or end, then fall could just as well be viewed as a beginning. Like the counterweight on a flywheel, autumn provides the inertia to turn the annual cycle over.PETER J. MARCHAND … [Read more...]
Amazing Autumn Artistry
God the Creator displayed his multicolored masterpieces last weekend for my hubby and me as we traveled in update New York. We arrived at the perfect fall foliage point. What a feast for the eyes and the heart. The hills wrapped themselves with a warm sweater of fall shades. Everywhere we looked we drank in spicy muddy browns, bright mustard yellows, rich ruddy reds and spikes of exploding oranges. I asked God why. Why take the time to create such an amazing autumn artistry? God didn't have to present such a wonderful show. God could have skipped the colors and dashed from green to bare in an instant. But God chose to mesmerize us with his heavenly hues. God the Artist opted to paint. [contact-form][contact-field label="Name" type="name" required="true" /][contact-field label="Email" type="email" required="true" /][contact-field label="Website" type="url" /][contact-field label="Message" type="textarea" /][/contact-form] I studied these … [Read more...]
One Wonderful Reason to Love Spring – Quote of the Week
Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world. ~Virgil A. Kraft … [Read more...]
Celebrating Spring
April has finally arrived. I don’t know about you but I need, really need spring. I want to open my windows, replacing the stale furnace air with Ohio warm breezes. I need to see new life springing up from the earth and bursting at the tips of branches. I love to watch the birds frolic in the backyard and create homes in nests built with scraps and broken leftover pieces. Spring reminds me that no matter how dark, dreary and long winter is, hope will come again. Spring is God’s reminder He will come again. To celebrate Spring’s arrival, I want to roll down my car window and hang my head out like dogs love to do. Instead I behave and yell, “Welcome” as loud as I can on a stretch of the road where no one can hear or see me. I smile at Spring’s invitation to rejoice and dance with delight with the Lord. My heart spills with gratitude for resurrection. Spring by Mary Oliver Faith is the instructor. We … [Read more...]
I Have Seen the Lord – Lectio Divina
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples … [Read more...]