Why did God make flowers? I think to simply bless us—because He loves us. On Valentine’s Day we celebrate love with roses, the flower of love. Have you ever looked at a rose? I mean really looked? The perfection of the petals, its delicate folds, the colors, the fragrance—all reveal the awesomeness of our Creator. Yet when you pick up a rose, you must be careful. The stem has thorns! Perhaps roses portray human love—beautiful, wondrous—yet imperfect. Love can hurt, pricking us with disappointment and heartache. But God’s love is like a rose without thorns. He demonstrated His greatest love…
With holiday time in full swing, it’s interesting to consider the traditions associated with Christmas. What do decorated trees and wreaths, yule logs, Santa Claus, Christmas cookies, and jingle bells have to do with the birth of Christ? Answer: Nothing! What does December 25 have to do with the birth of Jesus Christ? Answer: Nothing! Research reveals that Jesus was actually born in the fall of the year. Almost all the customs of Christmas stem from ancient pagan festivals honoring other gods, and didn’t begin until some 300 years after Christ’s death. And although the Bible records details about the…
My family comes from a long line of worry warts. Not the mild concern type worry, but the all-consuming hand-wrenching worry that puts knots in your stomach and keeps you up at night. My dad was a master worrier. It intensified as he got older and moved to a nursing home. He worried about me driving at night, about his grandkids making good choices, about the weather tomorrow. He would often say with a smile “I have a lot of time on my hands. I need something to worry about!” He wasn’t alone. Many people’s lives are consumed with worry….
Well-known radio broadcaster, the late Paul Harvey, told a heartfelt story on air every December that people loved. It portrays why an invisible God sent His Son to earth as a man. What follows is a condensed version of the story. Enjoy! Once there was a skeptical, non-religious man who just couldn’t swallow the “Jesus story” about God coming to earth as a man. One snowy evening as he sat by the fire reading, he was startled by a loud thud against his house. Then another, and another. He went outside to discover a flock of birds huddled miserably…
Have you ever considered that our greatest need is stillness? In our wildly accelerating world, our lives are perpetually overloaded, chaotic, and noisy. The demands of daily life, coupled with our devices constantly informing, entertaining, and distracting us, lead us to a place of endless inner buzz. We become increasingly desperate to slow down, unplug, and seek quiet—but find it foreign and elusive. Did God intend that we push stillness out of our lives to the degree that we no longer experience His presence? That we love and serve the god of busy instead of Him? Without a smartphone, even Jesus…