Living Life for Christ Alone

The sun was shining in the window as I held our newest little blessing in my lap and fed her a bottle.  I could hear my two-year-old crying in her crib, while my three-year-old softly tried to talk sense to her from her bed across the room. (It's hilarious to overhear, but that's a whole other topic.) I looked up at the clock and my heart sank.  "Late again," I thought. "Poor girls... When will I get the timing of the morning down? No wonder Avi is so upset."  As usual, I felt like kicking myself. Two weeks of this, and I still don't have it down....  A gentle nudge from within stopped me from going any further down that path.  "Do you really expect to be mistake free?"  // The last couple of weeks have been uncomfortable for me as I learn the ropes of endless paperwork, visits, communication with people involved in the foster care system, court dates and building a relationship with the baby's biological family.  It would certainly be a lo...

"Where are you?"   She hears, but is afraid to come out of the shadows, for she knows that if she walks into the light that is inseparable from the One who called her, her sin and imperfections will be exposed.  "What if He doesn't love me anymore?"  She asks herself, fearing that all she's known of Him will be proven untrue. His footsteps come closer. He calls her by name. His voice filled with tender love.  His light shines on the trees around her, maker her shadowy hiding place a little more conspicuous.  She remembers the many times He has held her in the past as she wept over her pain. His kindness towards her fills her mind, and she knows that she can't live without Him. If she must go on, she must be exposed to the light, however uncomfortable.  Really, what does she have to lose if she has Him? Or on the contrary, what does she have to gain if she loses Him? She steps out of hiding. The light catches first her feet, and then there in plain sigh...

"Where do wars and fights come from among you?" (James 4:1) Have you ever paused to wonder why fights happen?  When I say fighting, yes, I could be talking about actual wars happening. I could also be referring to the battles we fight within our own country- political, social, and so on.  I could be talking about the rifts that happen interdenominationally, or even within a single church.  But I'm sure we all know that fighting happens a lot closer to home than that.  How about the "disagreements" (er, arguments) that happen within families: among siblings, spouses, parents and teens, etc.? There is something almost thrilling about joining in a good argument, would you agree? I've gotten caught up in some of them myself. It's almost addicting to fight for that last word.  But usually, whoever had the last word was the one who inflicted the most pain.  And whenever that last word is followed by silence, you can be sure that it will take a lot of work to ...

The thin figure caught my eye as the team and I gathered back together from evangelizing on the pier in El Salvador. I didn't know if it was a he or she, but this person walked in a rather strange way. He wore tights and a green trench coat. His hair went to his shoulders, and he wore a hat that seemed to fit his look. In his hand he held a blonde doll.  The people I was with also noticed him, and we all watched as he walked by. Suddenly, he turned and saw us watching. "Don't make eye contact," someone warned us. He took a few steps toward us. In his eyes, evil danced, a grin spread across his face that seemed to say, "I see you watching..."

"And now abides faith, hope, love; these three; but the greatest of these is love. "                   - 1 Corinthians 13: 13 A question gnawed at my mind as I considered the sentence above. Why would love be more important than faith and hope? The world is filled with unfair circumstances. Life seems to always be getting messed up. You'd think maybe hope would be most needed. And what about faith? Isn't that the key to pleasing God? Wouldn't faith be most important, because faith pleases God? Didn't He create us for His glory? (Hebrews 11:6) But, no... the verse clearly said, "...the greatest of these is love." It is amazing how when you go to the bible with a need for one thing, if you truly are searching, God will show you something better than what you were looking for. I had been searching for hope. I was getting to a place where I wondered if there was any. As I searched for verses on hope, I realized that God is the God of hop...