Joy in the Journey

“What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must want these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name. Acts 4:16-17 Does this sentiment seem at all familiar to you? Peter and John have just appeared before the Sanhedrin. The result is that now all the big guys are in complete uproar. Here are these two uneducated, ordinary guys claiming that they have indeed given the lame guy his legs back. Worse, they are claiming to have done it in the name and power of Jesus Christ. You know the elders, Sadducees and the rest of the crew were thinking, “Oh please! Are we ever going to stop hearing about this Jesus?” Pretty sure that they won’t, they decide to stop Peter and John. They tell them, “That’s it, no more talking about Jesus.” Fine, except Peter and John aren’t quite so easily deterred. Politely they sa...

  “ Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41-42 Most mornings I get up before my husband and/or anyone else who might be visiting us. It's intentional. When the house is quiet and there is no one who needs me for any reason I can spend time alone with God. Before you give me points for being “good” let me tell that while it is a part of discipleship it is also very much for me. We read in Luke about Mary and Martha, two sisters with differing approaches to service. Martha is a feeder (so am I). Mary is an adorer (so am I). Both sisters love Jesus and are thrilled to have Him in their home. Martha takes her cue from every Italian and Greek mom I've ever met. She's going to feed the crowd. My guess is the “work” she's referring to is slaving over some huge meal so that she can offer Jesus and whoever else is there, “just a little somet...

  When they saw the star they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Matthew 2:10-11 Today is Epiphany or Little Christmas, today ends the time frame sung about in “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Those are not the days prior to December 25 th , those are the days between Christmas and January 6 th , Epiphany, the day we celebrate as the day the kings arrived to see Jesus. I am not going to get into how long it took the kings, who the kings were or any other deeper theological topics. I want to talk to you celebrations. We've just been through Advent, the waiting in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior. Then Christmas, the celebration of Jesus arriving here on Earth to be with us, to be one of us, the promise that He will one day come back for us. Now it's Little Christmas and the celebrating is over. To be honest, it's been over in a world view since December 26 th . ...

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7 Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. Psalm 55:22 Do you make New Year's resolutions? I do not and that is not a condemnation of those who do. It's just a different perspective. Having said that, it's not that I don't make resolutions. It's that I don't make them on New Year's day with an eye toward changing my life over the next year. No, my style of resolutions is more of a daily thing. I resolve every day to live that day in God's will. Some days that goes very well and other days..... well, let's just say, not so much. The dictionary says that resolve means, “to settle or find a solution to a problem” and “decide firmly on a course of action.” I think that second part of the definition is what people think of for New Year's resolutions, to “decide on a course of action.” My problem with that is that i...