Tagged: faith

  Psalm 62, Our Champion Defender I am standing in absolute stillness, silent before the one I love, waiting as long as it takes for him to rescue me. Only God is my Savior, and he will not fail me. For he alone is my safe place. His wrap-around presence always protects me (??????) as my champion defender. I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in him. Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion (Isaiah 8:17-18). Trusting the God I do not understand is very hard. Trusting the God who allows my… Read More

Somehow just doesn't sit right with me. Today we find ourselves on the tippy-top of the mountain, hump-day, round-the-corner day, Wednesday. (By the time you read this, we will likely be heading down the hill to Thursday.) I do not usually post on Wednesdays, but in times like these, I think we could all do with a little mid-week encouragement. I have been stuck on an old phrase lately, and you might get stuck on it too. We will make it through this season, not somehow, but triumphantly. It is said that the wonderful expression "not somehow, but triumphantly" gained popularity among Christian missionaries in the prisoner-of-war camps of Japan during World War II. Day after day, they rose, fixed their eyes on Jesus, and gathered… Read More

We think our work has to be so big to make a difference when all along the Lord is asking us to think small. His thoughts are so much higher than ours, and He is the One who will do great and wondrous things as we steward the small, one step of faith at a time. His command in Matthew 28:19-20 is to go and make disciples of all nations. This command seems so massive that we sometimes get bogged down in the immensity of the task. But we are each given one life, one segment of time and history to be part of this Great Commission. And how we do it may just be by thinking small. This is what my friend and colleague… Read More

To read Part One of When You Are Tested on the Very Truth You Declare, click here.  Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.Luke 22:31-32 There is a time in the walk of discipleship when we are tested on the very truth we declare, the promises that liberated us. The truth set us free. We know it is real. We have seen its fruit in our lives and others’. We have secured our identity in what God says is true about us. Perhaps we even built our life work on proclaiming it to others that they might be free, too.… Read More

Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.Luke 22:31-32 When we are tested on the very truth we declare, we really should not be surprised, but we often are. I wasn’t thinking about this on the day I met Hamida. She had traveled for days from the desert to reach our clinic, and her shyness was tangible as she sat before me, eyes averted and hands fluttering nervously in her lap. The flowing orange melhfa she wore barely covered the ugly scar that dripped down her face. “My mother-in-law did it with boiling oil,” she murmured, pulling aside the cloth to… Read More

for sw, my safest person The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea.Psalm 93:3-4, NKJV I watched the helicopter rise from the hospital helipad, each thunderous throb of its propellers coursing through my body like a terrible shockwave. We were sitting in a beautiful garden outside the hospital while our son slept on the tenth floor. The sun shone warmly and a magnificent hydrangea bush nodded in the gentle breeze beside us. But I was not present. I was in the dark, standing on a lonely platform looking up into the night sky seven… Read More

Run and tell his disciples, even Peter, that he is risen.Mark 16:7 Even Peter. How curious that the angel sitting in the empty tomb on the Morning of all mornings would emphasize the disciple who denied Jesus in his darkest hour. The angel was a servant messenger of the Most High God, and he was doing just what the Master had instructed. His words conveyed Jesus’ heart. Do not forget Peter especially. He needs to know He is still loved. Times of fear and panic cause people to act in ways contrary to their deepest beliefs. Patriots abandon the battle. Mothers walk away from their babies. Fathers leave their families. Disciples deny their Lord. Jesus knows and understands. He loved us before we loved Him… Read More

"Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."Mark 11:22-23 I have a list in my journal titled, “Mountain, Go Throw Yourself Into the Sea.” Underneath is a long line of things I cannot control, cannot possibly budge on my own, impossible things. I have given them to Jesus, the One who makes the impossible Possible. I have replaced my to-do lists with He-Can-Do. There are things I can… Read More

A global pandemic is a good time for a relationship reset with Jesus. What does the forced halt in productivity reveal in your relationship with God?  The tribe I once lived with in East Africa called us outsiders “wazungu”, which literally means “people who spin around and around.” We sure did spin around and around in the beginning, running here and there with our fancy projects and new ideas, keen on doing something Important. But the gentle people surrounding us didn’t think much about lofty goals and productivity. Their identity was anchored in land, relationships, and spirituality. Living in their midst was like existing in quarantine in many ways, far from the material comforts and resources we’d always enjoyed. As I struggled with the question… Read More

for Jen and Hil, we the original Cambridge Three Get up and begin the work! May the Lord be with you!1 Chronicles 22:16 I had longed for many years to become an intercessor. I was surrounded by mighty prayer warriors, women and men who devoted regular time to deep and persistent prayer, a level much deeper than I, as a young college student, had ever committed. I could see the fruit of their prayers, the way they persevered until breakthrough came, the patience with which they tarried before the King of kings, the One who moves mountains by His servants’ prayers of faith.  I yearned for that depth of character and commitment in myself. I strived to be like those I admired. As a graduate… Read More