Last Sunday, we looked at James's instructions on prayer in chapter 5. One note that especially struck me is in 5:17, where he describes Elijah's prayers as "he prayed in prayer," an unusual

How Are Your Toes Getting Wet?

I have seen God challenge me, many times in the last 50 years or so, far beyond my own willingness to perform. Many situations in life have made me dig deeper than I wanted to, into my own motivations, subtle ways of twisted thinking, and broken ways of

Wisdom from Above

Some days I just need a lot more wisdom. In many ways, even as old as I am, I don't make wise choices every time. (Of course, that probably doesn't apply to you, right? But you may learn something from reading along...) If you were to say where wisdom comes from, where would it be? From knowing a lot? From bad experiences leading you to not

The Unbending Grace of God

I've spent most of this morning working on internet technology that normally works pretty well, but that decided to make today more 'interesting' for me. Do you have days like that with technology? Or maybe you're blessed enough to get by without it! Regardless, anything made by humans will have its failings. What I'm glad about right now, is that the grace of God does not

Jesus and "All"

When I was in middle school, I had a teacher who was from Oklahoma and had the accent to prove it. One time she mentioned her brother who worked on 'all wells,' and it took us awhile to figure out she meant 'oil wells'! The same kind of misunderstanding can happen when people read the 'all' scriptures in the Bible and assume it means something less than 'all.' And that reading

What's Hiding in There?

The Lovely Joanne and I just purchased a carpet cleaning machine to restore our old carpets a little. We vacuum regularly, with a good vacuum cleaner, so even with the cats, the carpets should be pretty clean. So we thought. You should have seen the amount of dirt and gunk that came out with the cleaner! (Or maybe not...) I expected some, but not that much!

The same can be true in my spiritual life, and yours too. We tend to know some

Following Jesus More, Loving More

On Sunday, I read a tribute about a member of a sister congregation in Ohio, that finished with these words: "He loved the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart." That's about as good as anyone could write about anyone, I think. That's far above accomplishments, work, golf scores, or anything else I can imagine. That love, responding to God's love for us through Jesus, is what