"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18Therefore encourage each other with these words."1 … [Read more...] about Not Home Yet
Goals for Parenting
My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad; my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right. Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.Proverbs 23:15-17 (NIV)I heard this on Christian radio the other day: "We are a culture obsessed with giving our children every opportunity to be who they want to be. The … [Read more...] about Goals for Parenting
The Things We Do For Love
God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, … [Read more...] about The Things We Do For Love
A Tortured Existence
"If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." I John 4:20 (NIV)I recently saw a story of a woman who was tortured unmercifully by her country's government for secrets that she had and would not reveal. She was the mother of six children, her youngest still being an infant. … [Read more...] about A Tortured Existence
The Blessing of Unanswered Prayers
"You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure."James 4:2-3 (NLT)I heard a story this … [Read more...] about The Blessing of Unanswered Prayers
For My Sake
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)I was ten years old. … [Read more...] about For My Sake