Bible

Have you ever been curious about starting a journal? And if you have, have you wondered exactly what a journal is and what purpose it can serve in your busy life? A journal has been described as a record of one’s thoughts, beliefs, desires, experiences, and observations, and what they mean to that individual. In and of itself, writing those things down can be both therapeutic and enlightening. If that isn’t quite the encouragement you need, what if I told you that journaling could also be a way to experience God? I know that got your attention. If you are a Christian, you have a built-in longing for that, whether you know it or not. Sometimes, when we don’t recognize that longing,

On the day that America celebrates freedom, I was handcuffed with the diagnosis of Alopecia Areata (a stress-induced autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss). You’d think that finding two bald spots the size of baseballs on my scalp would be troubling enough, but it was actually the list of “mights” streaming from the doctor’s mouth that created my ocean of fear: “You might only have these two spots and nothing more. You might develop more spots. You might lose all of your hair… and your eyebrows, eyelashes, and all of your body hair. This might be for a season of life; it might be forever—or it might come and go throughout your life. Really the only predictable thing about Alopecia is that

During my teen years my mother often delivered a final sentence as I gathered my keys and purse and ran out the door to pick up friends for a night of fun. She did not say “I love you” or “have fun” or even “be safe” (although I am sure those may have been said or implied at some point). It was always this: “Be sure your sins will find you out!” Now this is the last half of a Bible verse, Numbers 32:23. One that, while true in context (when you read the whole thing), only served to create an impression on me that God was an active Whac-a-Mole player. He was bending over the entire Earth’s surface just waiting for someone to sin. Then

Have you ever heard the parable from the Bible about a house built on sand and another house built on a rock? I’ve heard it many times over the years, starting in Sunday school. As a teen, it was pitched my way whenever my mom wanted to make a point about what I was doing in life… it didn’t work well on a rebellious 18-year-old. Since that time I have literally lived out that analogy. I have owned a home in Florida and another one on a mountaintop in North Carolina. One house is built on a bunch of sand, while the other has a concrete foundation—poured and pinned into a rock bed. I have asked builders in Florida (more than once)