Some are saying goodbye to 2017. Others are saying good riddance. In our little corner of Creation, 2017 has been a tough year. Early on, our daughter fought for her very life, battling an infection that refused to yield to treatment after treatment. She spent a month in the hospital. Dear, sweet friends lost their…
Christmas is a Promise Kept
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. ~Isaiah 9:6 Perhaps there is a more profound Christmas bible verse, but I cannot think of…
God for Dummies – Can you believe if you don’t understand? | Morning Manna
[Copied and edited from my Morning Manna daily email devotional, 2000 – 2005] GOD FOR DUMMIES Can you believe if you don’t understand? Friday, November 3, 2000 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isa. 55:9 (KJV) I don’t…
Out on a Limb – A Devotional | Morning Manna
OUT ON A LIMB WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2000 Jesus was going through the city of Jericho. A man was there named Zacchaeus, who was a very important tax collector, and he was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because he was too short to see above the crowd….
Five-Legged Dogs – A Devotional | Morning Manna
The following was originally written as part of a daily email devotional, which I wrote from 2000 – 2005. FIVE-LEGGED DOGS Friday, October 31, 2003 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall…
BLESSED REJECTION – A DEVOTIONAL | MORNING MANNA
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2004 BLESSED REJECTION “Blessed are you when they revile you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.” Matt. 5:11,12(NKJV) Rejection. Nobody likes…
A twist to the tale – or – the Journey, continued
I have come to embrace, appreciate, and even love the thing I once hated most about my personal journey. Uncertainty. It is an uncomfortable word and a difficult way to live. It is easy to look at the well-ordered, seeming predictable path others travel with envy. Those people who seem to know exactly who they…
The gospel according to Hank …and Holly
I grew up with a Bible in my hand and big chunks of it systematically planted in my heart and mind. For that, I am grateful. Every sermon I ever heard about the poor, wandering, lost sinner sounded eerily like this: I’m a rollin’ stone all alone and lost For a life of sin, I…
The Darndest Things – or – the wisdom of the child
“Kids say the darndest things.” You know it. I know it. We love it. Back when he was one of America’s most beloved and cherished comics, Bill Cosby demonstrated this fact in a TV series by that name (it ran 1998 – 2000). Art Linkletter ran the original “Kids Say the Darndest Things” as a…
Where does the time go? ~Putting the Past and the Future into Perspective
“Where does the time go?” An old friend and I were reminiscing not long ago, talking about old times the places we had been and the things we had done together in days long gone. His was a rhetorical question – one that I have asked and heard others ask innumerable times. It is a…