Most Recent Messages

So, some of you might know…. many may not… But these last few months we’ve (my family and I) have been walking through a pretty tough valley, one I never thought we’d experience. Our little 6 year old granddaughter, Leighton Grace went through surgery to remove a malignant tumor from her brain. The whole “event” swooped in from out of nowhere and broadsided our entire family. Thus, “the pause” as I have not blogged since the week prior to this all happening. The pause….what a pause! Life stops, focus changes, and life becomes completely unchartered! It’s in that “unchartered” place where you find where you truly are in your faith! Who God really is to you. How much you truly trust HIM and truly implement “do not lean on our own understanding”(Proverbs 3:5-6). Truthfully, I do not know how (or why) the world would choose to walk through life (both … Continue Reading

Beclouded or Beloved? What does that even mean??

The definition of “Becloud” is to cause to become obscure or muddled.

The definition of “Beloved” is dearly loved.

Today, many Christians are finding themselves facing many adversities, hardships, disappointments, fear and confusion and frankly finding life quite MUDDLED UP!!  Romans 12 verse 2 admonishes us to “not be conformed to this world”. This letter that Paul writes to the Romans was intended to prepare the Church of Christ to partner with him (Paul), partner with one another, and partner with God’s holy plan for reaching His people. He’s speaking to an audience that he’s gently exhorting to grow up and be Christians marked by Christ-likeness, marked as “different from the crowd”. Romans 12 is written to the CHURCH folks…thats us!! He was admonishing them to BE THE CHURCH and not fall into an obscure, uncertain way of life. To … Continue Reading

It’s time to pray everyone!!! It actually was time to pray a long time ago but I think we Americans are quite “COMFY” in our own little worlds! Business as usual, vacations as usual, schedules as usual. No offense, but God does expect more from His Children who say they belong to HIM!!  It’s time to get our eyes off of our comfortable lives here in the US and our eyes off of our own personal worlds and worries and SEE and COME TOGETHER for the Ukrainian people!! The bible tells us to pray unceasing, which generally speaking, means just an ongoing conversation with our God! Let’s pray unceasingly for the families and the children. Let’s pray unceasingly for the men and the young boys they are imploring to stand and fight against the Russian military. Let’s pray unceasingly for the mothers and the babies and the animals that are … Continue Reading

As our women’s group (Rise Up) meets every month, we come together to not only grow in our relationship with our Lord but to grow in our relationships with one another! What a beautiful opportunity to strengthen and gird ourselves up!! I thought I’d share what we talked about last night….seemed so timely…..

Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To EVERYTHING there is a season, A TIME for EVERY PURPOSE under heaven….”

Seasons….just as we have our natural cyclical seasons throughout our year….so to, do we live and journey through season after season after season in our spiritual lives. Life is organized in a pattern of repeated cycles. Picture with me the calendar seasons. We can surely see that as we start in the Fall ….things are beginning to fade and die, the grass begins to trade it’s beautiful lush green for the mousy brown blah! Flip flops are being exchanged for shoes … Continue Reading

You ever feel like your running solo through this unpredictable, topsy turvy, valley and mountain top journey we call life?? Well, I can tell you I do at times!! Sometimes it gets down right exhausting and flat out lonely living this christian life as the days become darker and God is pushed further out of this worlds view! I find myself relating to the prophet Elijah. In 1 Kings 17 Elijah the prophet comes onto the scene out of no where. His sudden, unannounced arrival comes from God himself during a time of gross evil and wickedness (sound familiar in today’s world?) Now at this time there had been a very long line of godless men “sitting on the throne and incessantly doing evil in the sight of the Lord”. God was done….his People refused to turn back to him. So out of a remote, back woods place, God … Continue Reading

Matthew 6:12  “And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” 

Forgiveness, a very touchy subject these days and a very difficult thing for many. It is astounding to me the lack of forgiveness, the grudge holding, and resentment that we see Christians have with others. But as you can see in the book of Matthew chapter 6, a very very familiar prayer,  that our Lord has given us a specific model for our prayers….. and let’s be honest….. it is very clear Gods expectations of forgiveness. Now, as we come into our own personal relationship with our Lord we begin to understand forgiveness. We begin to experience that forgiveness, that unconditional love, that unrelenting grace.  But as we grow in our relationship with the Lord, as we mature, it is vitally important that we have an understanding that the very forgiveness and grace that we extend to others … Continue Reading

Stillness… a word that is pretty ordinary, kind of regular, and completely opposite of the world that we see in this season of society! Right now in the world we see fear, chaos, hatred, and unrelenting bickering. Ohhhh how deafening! Yet in the life of every child of God there should be “Stillness” ….. a very powerful word and place for every believer! Psalm 46:10 tells us “Be still, and know that I am God.” Amidst the darkness and chaos there is a place offered to each of us as children of God to “come away” (in that “hollow” place) and to hide in the restful place of our Lord! Let me share a short little nugget about this little unassuming word “stillness” . There was a lecture given by a scientist to his students in regards to a flame experiment. He wanted to show that in the center of … Continue Reading

Hey everyone… Hope you all are having a wonderful summer!! We have been busily working on our daughters wedding as it is quickly approaching at the end of August! We are so excited! Got a little nugget for you that I would like to share today…..

The Bible teaches us in John 10:10 “The thief comes ONLY to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Much of the time we Christians breeze through this scripture rather fast and always see the latter part of it which is good and right, but let’s focus on the first part of the scripture. The first part talks about how the enemy of our soul, yes the devil, comes ONLY … Notice the word “only”. It is Satan’s One and only job and sole purpose to steal from you, kill you … Continue Reading

As I was reading today I found myself in the book of Exodus and found an interesting thought. Exodus 16:1, “ They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is BETWEEN Elim and Sinai.” As I read this passage the little, seemingly insignificant word “between” glaringly stared back at me! Immediately I thought of the journey I’m on ….. you know, like your journey, our destinies, our calls. And on these journeys there are those unexplainable times, the “in between” times from point A to point B. Wherever point B is (this is where the crying, confused look emoji should be placed!) Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of where your going because the here and now takes up all your present thinking. Sometimes it gets tiring pressing forward with no change in sight, no evidence that … Continue Reading

Matthew 25:40, “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'”

Most of us have read this many times before. But today I want to challenge you to stop and really evaluate this scripture as it truly reflects in your own life. Pause a moment and look around at your life and surroundings. Your home life, your job, your church life, your friends, your neighbors…..in each of these circles THERE IS SOMETHING a willing, compassionate heart can and should contribute to! The Lord has called us to be a piece of the bigger picture or plan He has for this world. He calls us, His followers, to be more fully open to HIM, HIS PLAN, HIS DESIGN for each of our daily … Continue Reading