Tagged: hope

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.2 Corinthians 4:7 For many years I read this passage with one clear image in mind. Terra-cotta, reflecting the earth’s rich hue, thick, rough-hewn earthen jars just the right size to hold in two hands. Their purpose, to be filled with whatever is needed and poured out in service. I imagined them brimming with freshly pressed olive oil, warm water for washing tired feet, or frothy goat’s milk newly squeezed. Such mental images came to life in my travels through South America and East Africa as I discovered countless vessels created to hold something useful and aid in service.  I thought deeply about the… Read More

We are experiencing trouble on every side, but are not crushed; we are perplexed, but not driven to despair; we are persecuted, but not abandoned; we are knocked down, but not destroyed, always carrying around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our body.2 Corinthians 4:7-10 “What can man do to you? Much every way. Like a small thing unsheltered, like a mimosa in a thunderstorm—stems, leaves, flowers, involved in a common distress—that is how you feel till you remember God. And then what happens? …you prove that the spirit of man energized by the Spirit of God can defy the natural, and need not be, as it would naturally be, destroyed when… Read More

“Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”John 12:21 The Greeks who asked Philip to see Jesus were devout worshippers of the one true God and had come to Jerusalem to worship at the feast. They joined in the meetings in the temple as far as they were allowed, being Gentiles.  Now they wanted more; they wanted to see Jesus. They had made their choice to worship God, but something about the man who healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead stirred a deeper desire to see clearly. They wanted to get right up close to Him, to speak to Him, to look in His eyes and have Him look in theirs, to communicate and discern who He really was. His… Read More

For you have not yet come to the final stop and inheritance the Lord your God is giving you (Deuteronomy 12:9). “Mommy, I think lately God has been trying to tell me something.” Her big blue eyes stared deeply into mine. The air in the room, so still and quiet a moment before, quivered like a pool disturbed by a noiseless earth tremor.  “He is telling me that He is coming soon. Jesus is coming with lots of people to take us all up to heaven with him,” she continued, her face filled with glowing certainty. “And I just can’t wait to go. It will make me so happy.” I continued listening, my heart caught in my throat.  “I had a dream about it, you… Read More

One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked (John 5:5-9) Sometimes suffering can go on so long we lose hope. We lie on the mats of our circumstances and watch others rush past in pursuit of… Read More

@audreycfrank When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:32). This is Mary, the one who knew she was loved by the Lord. Mary, the one who sat at his feet and listened. She was the woman who broke the cultural stereotype of the day that said women could not be students, disciples of the Rabbi. Mary is the one who “chose the thing that was better” (see Luke 10:42). One day this same Mary would anoint Jesus' feet with expensive perfume before his crucifixion (see John 12:1-8). Mary had a strong measure of confidence in her relationship with Jesus. She knew… Read More

@audreycfrank The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5) Walking in the dark night of Africa is risky. The black mamba, one of the world’s deadliest snakes, can completely camouflage himself within the inky darkness. He is one of the few snakes who are active at night and has a particular love for wood or metal that has absorbed the heat of the day.  We encountered the black mamba only once, coiled around the grating on our screen door. After a long night of good conversation and milky hot chai by lantern light, we saw our guests to the door. As my husband reached out his hand to open it the darkness moved, alerting us to the killer’s… Read More

@audreycfrank In the very place where they were once named Nobody, they will be named God’s Somebody (Hosea 1:10, The Message). I once knew a girl who was ashamed of her name.  It was an unusual name, an uncommon name, a name which caused others to ask its origin. When the unavoidable question came, the girl would avert her eyes and mumble a soft explanation that left the questioner confused but with the distinctly uncomfortable impression that this topic was complicated. Her name had been given in haste, created by two people who found themselves in more trouble than they anticipated with a baby they had not planned. In the middle of a dark and chilly night, they escaped together to another place where no one… Read More

What will you begin in 2019? @audreycfrank Alert and ready to leap out of bed at any given second, I lay in the dark and listened. The sound of a rat running back and forth on the bedpost inches from my head had me frozen in place, afraid if I breathed he might make a detour and jump on my head.  What on earth is he carrying in his mouth with such dedication? I wondered to myself. Back and forth, back and forth. Scratch, scramble, swoosh, slip, patter-patter-patter over my head. Again. And again. He was one busy rat. All of my senses were completely trained upon his every move. I was trying very hard not to scream. It did not help that my husband slept… Read More

@audreycfrank A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. Isaiah 42:3 A golden fleece of evening sunlight spread over the gentle hills, inviting the village to slow down and rest after a dusty day’s work in the cornfields. The murmur of women and children as they exchanged their short-handled jembes for water buckets rose like a lullaby over the beautiful evening landscape. A shrunken old lady wrapped in the commanding red linens of a head wife made her way slowly to a young girl, flicking her wrist as she quietly instructed, “Fetch the ember.” It was time to light the fires for the evening meal. Each day, one person preserved hot embers from the previous day’s fire.… Read More