“What is impossible with man is possible with God.” Luke 18:27 Many of us take comfort from the verse above.  When God calls us to a challenging task, it is very comforting to know that He can make it possible.  I often leap to the assumption that if He calls me to do something, then Read more

I wrote another devotional on joy, but for some reason the Holy Spirit decided that I needed to write another one.  Perhaps it is because we often miss out on the joy that God wants us to experience.  God’s desire is for us to be filled with joy, His joy, all the time. The concept Read more

I have a hard time getting my brain around our God’s “Almightiness” and His deep and intimate love for me as an individual.  My rational self just has trouble with this juxtaposition.  How in the world can the all-powerful God that created and ordered all of creation have the time to be interested in me?  Read more

People sometimes ask me how I decide what to write about.  The short answer is that the Holy Spirit provides the ideas.  This is a kind of mysterious process where an idea comes into my head but somehow, I recognize it as not my own.  Sounds kind of goofy, unless you have experienced it!  This Read more

Happy New Year!  This phrase has been on our lips for the past few days.  We will continue to say it for a few more and then it will slowly fade away.  It seems to me a little sad that the celebration of the “new” is so short-lived. I happen to like new.  I like Read more

We use the word joy frequently during the Christmas season.  This past Sunday we lit the joy candle.  We sing “Joy to the World.”  I think the yearning for joy, true joy, is hardwired into our DNA.  Who doesn’t want to experience joy?  During this season, we are often lured into thinking that joy comes Read more

It’s week two of Advent which means this past Sunday the Love candle was lit in Advent Wreaths all over world.  Love is a word that gets tossed around liberally.  I love guacamole and I love a warm shower and I love my husband.  All of those loves are great, but they aren’t really the Read more

This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent and in churches all over the world, the first candle in the Advent Wreath was lit.  In the reform tradition, the first candle is the Hope candle.  The lighting ceremony prompted to me to reflect a bit on the hope that the candle represents. My mind Read more

“It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Lord Most High.” Psalm 92:1 After writing about gratitude for three weeks, it seemed the next logical topic should be praise.  Sincere thanksgiving leads us to praise God.  According to Bible Gateway, the word praise is in the NIV version of Read more

A couple of days ago, I was experiencing a bit of anxiety over writing yet another devotional about gratitude.  I thought I’d pretty much exhausted the topic and couldn’t think of anything approaching profound to say.  Then the Holy Spirit taught me a lesson about gratitude in the form of a simple prayer.  Our three Read more