You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.   The Holy Bible (Amplified Version), The Book of Isaiah Chapter 26 Verse 3 This particular scripture in this particular version has played a big part in my life in my 30's.  God literally woke me up one morning years ago by speaking it to me.  I know.  Question that all you want but I know what I know.  I was dead asleep and my eyes popped open at a voice speaking these words to me.  I didn't even know where in the Bible exactly it was until I enlisted the aid of a concordance.  Since that time God has continued to put this verse in front of me to either remind me of its truth or to compel me to share it with others. Want peace?  Then fix, literally, your mind on all of God - his character and his promises - and press in to him.  Y...

Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith.   Margaret Shepard Sometimes I feel like I am standing on a cliff and whether I turn to my left or right or look in front or in back of me the only way to get off the cliff is to leap.  Sometimes it is the only way to get from point A to point B.  But too often that leap looks to scary, to intimidating  to impossible.  But if point B is the destination then I have got to muster up my courage, squeeze my eyes shut if I must, and step off into the unknown, trusting that point B will catch me.  Sometimes all we have is faith in the form of a leap.  Trust your instinct about to take it, you have more courage than you think you do.

Ours is an active faith.  It is made alive and appealing only when our nouns turn into verbs.   Nancy Leigh DeMoss Nouns are cheap, the worth of something is found in verbs.  (In case you aren't getting it because it's a Monday morning that's a play on the phrase 'talk is cheap'...light bulb moment right?!?)  Faith is unappealing, unattractive, dull, and pretty useless unless it is turned from a noun into a verb.  I love today's thought by DeMoss.  It immediately appealed to me when I read it. Faith isn't supposed to just sit on the sidelines of life (or in the pews of a church) and proclaim it is faith.  It is meant to go out and live loudly among the world in which we reside.  Faith is action, not passivity.  Faith has arms and legs, hands and feet, a beating heart, eyes that see, ears that hear, a mouth to speak and sing.  Faith is very active, it isn't a noun but it is a verb. How's your faith?  Is is a noun or a ...

"Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists." Blaise Pascal I'm interested in the people who are so threatened by having faith in God.  What is it about placing faith in him that threatens them so?  That seems to almost repulse them?  That  prompts  a deep anger toward him and, sometimes, toward people who walk in faith?  Is it the desire to be the "captain of your own boat"?  Is it transference because of how someone treated them at some point in their life?  Is it their intellect that they can't reconcile the unanswered questions with?  Or is it simply they just don't see a reason to believe in anyone but themselves?   I promise I am not passing judgment, I'm simply curious. *   I know, for me, what a life choosing faith has prov...

I believe in Christ like I believe in the sun - not because I can see it, but by it I can see everything else.   C.S. Lewis Because of Christ in me I have eyes that see what others may not.  I have a heart that feels and beats and breaks in ways other hearts may not.  I have ears that hear what others may not.  I have a mouth that should speak what others may not and shouldn't speak what others do.  (*grin* My mouth is my biggest issue and I'm light years ahead of where I used to be with it!)  I have a mind that processes differently than others may. Because of Christ in me I can see peace on the horizon, hope for the hurting, mercy for the weak, grace for the needy. Because of Christ in me I see my world, and yours, differently. Because of Christ in me I see life through the lens of Love, a kind of Love that the world doesn't understand so I do my best to share that Love with them. Because of Christ in me I see beyond the natural. Because of Christ ...

Faith is not being sure where you're going, but going anyway.   Frederick Buechner We all have faith.  And not just in one thing but multiple things.  Some of us have faith in the government, or rather our pick of political party.  Some of us don't have faith in any part of government!  Some of us have faith in a teacher or professor.  Some of us have faith in a particular kind of exercise regime.  And then, of course, we all have faith in a higher power - whichever one we choose.  (And I contend that even when people say they don't have faith in any higher power they actually still do - they make something their higher power - we can't help it, it's built in to believe in something bigger and higher than ourselves.  For example, many people have made science their higher power.)  That faith is the most strongly contested kind of all.  But I'm not interested in getting into that today (or really any other day if you want...

I have learned that faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse.   Philip Yancey We don't like the unknown.  And faith is a lot of unknown because we are asked to trust what we don't understand fully.  Have you ever tried it?  Have you ever decided to take the risk and try trusting for the faith to come?  It's not for the faint of heart.  It takes courage, determination, and grit.  But as with most things that take courage, determination, and grit the reward, the payoff is so worth it.  I can't tell you what the payoff will be, it varies from person to person.  But I can tell you it will be worth it; it will stun you and surprise you and delight you.  When we choose to trust for the faith we will see play out in reverse we are choosing to embrace the unknown.

The only life worth living is a scandalous one: scandalous love, offensive mercy, foolish faith. Let joy live loud in your soul. Ann Voskamp I love this quote.  I love it for the use of the word scandalous.  What a cool word.  Now if you look it up in the dictionary and see its meaning you might think I have gone off the deep end for saying it's a cool word.  But stick with me.  One of its definitions is this:  offensive to propriety or morality.  That's where things get cool when you combine faith and scandal. Jesus caused a lot of scandal in his day as he walked from town to town and offended the ideas, practices, and relationships that had been set up.  He offended a bunch of people with his lavish love, his unending mercy, and his talk of how to live in faith.  He was scandalous in all the best ways possible.  And here's the cool thing.  He calls me to do it to...and you!   And he gave us examples and equipped us. ...

If you aren't enamored, captivated, by Jesus then perhaps you should consider if you have ever really met him. Dan Jessup At Family Camp my friend Dan was club speaker.  This is what we talked about.  The person of Jesus.  Does he enamor you?  Are you captivated by him?  No?  Then have you met him...really?  I venture to say "no".  Dan is right.  If you aren't enamored by Jesus then you probably haven't truly met him, just a glimpse is all you've gotten and chances are good it wasn't an accurate glimpse.   See when I really met Jesus I became speechless, awed, humbled, amazed, and a crying mess.  Just the thought of him gets me weepy.  He is beyond words.  I've really met him and it wasn't on a Sunday morning or Wednesday night. It was in my life that I really and truly met him.  It was without a Pastor telling me what to do and how to do it.  It was without textbook answers and false appearances.  It was...

What is the point of all of this if you aren't going to let it change you?   Francis Chan Today's quote and commentary is dedicated to one of my besties.  Sara "Sunshine" Pfaff-O chieng. If you are my FB friend then perhaps you've seen her and I together on FB.  Here we are a little over a month ago.  We are at the airport and I'm hugging her off to go marry her beloved, Paul.  He's a Kenyan and they married in Kenya since the U.S. was being stinky about letting him come for a visit here so they could marry in the States.  What's CRAZY about my Sara's story is this:  a short year ago, on this date, she had no plans to marry anyone and move her whole life.  Amazing what can happen in a few short months.   Sara went to Kenya last summer (2011) for a 7 week missions trip.  She met Paul in about the last hour she was in Nairobi and now they are married.  Paul, who is AMAZING, currently teaches and lives in Oman.  So Sara ...

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.   Robert Louis Stevenson I'm a black thumb.  I always say that if it's not human I can't help to keep it alive.  :)  Seriously.  I follow watering and light directions exactly (or so I believe) and still anything I have planted (and I use that term loosely and if you know me well enough you know what I mean!) or anything given to me to keep alive I manage to kill off.  It's frustrating. Sometimes my life feels like that.  I imagine you might be nodding your head in agreement.  You know what I'm saying right?  We take time to till the soil, plant the seeds, water and we wait and wait and wait and get nothing.  It could be a relationship, it could be a dream job, it could be a dream, it could be just about anything.  I think part of our problem may be our patience - or lack thereof.  See, the Farmer knows that you plant but then you wait.  The ...

Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden. Corrie ten Boom For whatever reason when I read this quote recently (I've read it before but it was re-introduced a few months back) I was struck with the simple truth of it.  If the matter is too small to pray about then why have I made it into this large load I'm now hauling around with me?  It's either a burden or it's not.  It's my choice. And if it's a burden then I'm better off laying it down at the feet of my Savior to pick up rather than trying to carry it with me.  If I have dismissed something as not worth spending time in prayer about then I should carry over that value and consider it not worth  carrying  around either!   I attach value to things - God does not.  I  categorize  my concerns and try to take care of the small ones by myself lest I "bother" God with such piddly matters.  Perhaps I think I'm doing him a favor by not bo...

Today I know it deep in my spirit that the hard seasons don’t minimize Him but in fact magnify His goodness.   Katie Davis This is not a new truth but one that is easy to forget and hard to remember.  That may sound like I just said the same thing but I didn't, not really.  Stick with me.   It's easy to forget about God's goodness when things are going well.  We tend to forget that his goodness is there, weaved in throughout our days.  We breeze through our days without giving him much of a thought.  It's unfortunate that we have allowed ourselves to forget him.   It's really hard to remember God's goodness when things aren't going so well.  Suddenly we begin talking to him and about him, blaming him for this hard season.  Um.  Either he's with us all the time or he's not, make up your mind.  You know what I'm saying right?  Even the most hardened heart acknowledges God in hard times.  W-W-W-HAT?  Think abou...

Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that's where life starts. Don't talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you. Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust. Proverbs 4:23-27 (MSG) Easier said than done, right?  Especially when you have to interact with other people on a daily basis!  This portion of Proverbs popped up for me and some co-workers at a time a few months back when things happening in our organization felt like a "sideshow distraction" or easily could have become one.  In addition when unsettling things happen, no matter where you are at, the mouths start running and without meaning to you find yourself sucked into talking out of both sides of your mouth.  I am way way guilty of this.  I start off great but the sideshow distracts me from what I know is ri...