I hope I never forget what the Spirit of the Lord said to me on September 11th, as I watched the towers of the World Trade center flare then crumble in smoke and ashes just a few hours from my home. It’s not what I would have expected Him to say. He didn’t pat me nicely and say, “There, there, now sweetheart. Don’t be afraid. Everything is going to be all right.” It would have been perfectly scriptural if He had. After all, the 91st Psalm says a thousand [...]
Last night the coach of the Boston Celtics preached a great message. (Too bad his team didn’t listen.) He said, “Guys, trust! If you trust, you’ll play free. And if you play free, you can’t be beaten.” Whoa…good stuff, Doc. Not just for NBA players but for those of us who have suited up in righteousness and are leaving it all on the court for Jesus. For us, as for Garnett and gang, trust is the key. As long as we trust Jesus—His love and commitment to us, His power working [...]
It happened before I was born, but as a kid I heard the story many times. About my dad, mom and sister rumbling down the Oklahoma highway in a Studebaker headed for grandma’s house. The sweet smell of summer streaming through the car’s open window. My sister’s cherub-blonde hair whipping across her face. No car seat laws for children back then, she was standing in the front seat beside my dad as he drove when she seized the moment as only a toddler can. Reaching for the car keys, she [...]
Who could have imagined it? Ivy league psychologists, often at odds with all things Biblical, have published a study that provides further validation (if anyone needs it) of Romans 1:19: For the truth about God is known to [all men] instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. (New Living Testament) Who opened the eyes of the august academians to this profound spiritual truth? A bunch of babies. (You gotta love it.) According to a news report citing today’s Daily Mail: ...experiments conducted by the psychology department at [...]
I’ve been in Oklahoma City for the past few days, attending a writer’s conference. Not a Christian writer’s conference, mind you, but the secular type. It wasn’t too secular, of course, because of the location. As everybody knows, you can’t swing a dead armadillo in Oklahoma without hitting a dozen Baptists, a handful of Charismatics, and a Nazarene or two. But, still, the conference had a refreshingly unreligious feel to it. What I liked best about it was the marvelous variety of “characters” I encountered there. A motley crew, [...]
Do you ever wonder if something is lacking in our spiritual diet these days? Does it ever seem to you that many contemporary Christians seem kind of...anemic ? That we lack the robust, rugged endurance, the commitment and character of believers in ages past? Our hearts are not of inferior quality. No, we’re cut from the same divine cloth. Born again in the same image of Jesus that produced missionaries and martyrs of days gone by, our spiritual genes are identical to theirs. But sometimes we seem so weak [...]
Sometimes I forget about the devil. I’m embarrassed to admit it. But it’s true. I get so enamored with my Lord, so caught up in my fellowship with Him that I neglect to keep a proper eye on the fiend who is—always—lurking about, scheming to steal what the Master has promised to give me. Such forgetfulness is costly. It leads to frustration and needless delays. It leaves me scratching my head, puzzling over why progress is some area of my life has stopped. Unaware of the devil sneaking around [...]
When trouble threatens, the best thing to do is head for higher ground. That’s a solid, scriptural truth. But I didn’t learn it first from the Bible. I figured it out at my grandmother’s house when I was a little girl trying to escape my great uncle Willard’s hugs. Dear old Uncle Willard hugged like a python. Bless his heart, he meant well. But, as a lumber-jack of a man who spent his days clearing Oklahoma oak thickets with an axe, he didn’t know his own strength. (And since he [...]
God is into surprises. Really into them. He thinks they’re fun. He wants me to think they’re fun too, but to be honest, I’m not always on the same page with Him about it. Sometimes I get cranky when I ask Him what’s going to happen about this or that and He says, It’s a surprise! Anybody who thinks He doesn’t say that has never read the Bible. It’s full of surprises front to back. It tells about a God who says things like, Leave your country and your father’s [...]
God doesn’t answer scared prayers. I heard somebody say that one time. Quoting a kid from the backwaters of Missouri, they mimicked his accent and it came out this way. God don’t answer skeert prayers. There’s some truth in that for sure. Prayers of faith are what move mountains. Prayers of faith are what please God. And you can’t pray in faith and be skeert at the same time. That’s why Jesus said, “Fear not. Only believe.” Because skeert, if we let it run loose, will chase away faith. So [...]