EN ROUTE

Song: May the Words of My Mouth (Christy Nockels and Janna Long)  May the words of my mouth And the thoughts of my heart Bless Your name, bless Your name Jesus And the deeds of the day And the truth in my ways Speak of You, speak of You Jesus For this is what I'm glad to do It's time to live a life of love that pleases You And I will give my all to You Surrender everything I have and follow You I'll follow You Lord, be my vision Lord, be my guide Be my hope, be my light and the Way And I'll look not for riches Nor praises on earth Only You'll be the first of my heart For this is what I'm glad to do It's time to live a life of love that pleases You And I will give my all to You Surrender everything I have and follow You I'll follow You I'll follow You I'll follow You (I'll follow You, I'll follow You) I'll follow You For this is what I'm glad to do It's time to live a life of love that pleases You And I will give my all to You ...

It's extremely troubling, concerning and unsettling the things we see, hear and read that is taking place in our country today. I think that's putting things very mildly. Of course, there is always two sides to the story and it's imperative to take what we read, see and hear on the news and internet with discernment. However, there's enough evidence for us to all agree we are facing very challenging times on several fronts and at times, every thing feels and appears totally out of control. The hate, anger and quite frankly the rage is very real and very apparent and very alarming. In some instances, there seems to be pure disdain for anything decent or civil with lawlessness gone wild. And if I'm not careful, I can easily find myself caught up in all the madness. The chaos and unrest leaves me at times feeling out of control, tense and wound up.   It's apparent our society is hurting. We've been hurting and fractured for a very long time - long before COVID-...

"The LORD will fight for you, and you must be quiet." Exodus 14:14 God holds our hopes, dreams, desires, longings, yearnings and future in his capable and loving hands. And the most profound and beautiful part is this, we too are being HELD by God himself.  Beheld and rest as we confidently stand and move forward and towards his love. 

Labor:  expenditure of physical or mental effort especially when difficult or compulsory.  Birthing = labor. It's laborious. Whether it be bringing new life into the world in the form of a human being, growing that human being, or bringing new life into the world in the form of a creative gift or product, or growing that gift or product it's all marked with labor. There is no substitution for labor and hard work. As we labor to birth new dreams, visions and bring life into this world, it's important to take time to pause, remember and rest. God is the ultimate giver of life and the source of all our dreams and visions. If he rested, so should we. 

We pray and want miracles but if we’re really honest, we actually just want God to simply do it for us. If our prayers are honest, it sounds more like, "God, please just make it happen with minimal effort on my part and void of or with little work, especially hard work and pain."   First, I'm not minimizing the power of God to perform miracles, the instant and clearly so out of this world type of miracles that it is abundantly clear no amount of human effort could have yielded that outcome or result. Second, I'm not shaming those, myself included who have prayed these type of prayers. We've all been in situations or circumstances that are unbearable and impossible if not for the divine intervention of God. We get weary in the journey and our patience wears thin with all the waiting so there have been a time or two we've cried out in desperation for God to please rescue and fix things now. I've been there a time or two. Again, no shame.  I actually don'...

Thank God for his patience and loving kindness constantly leading us back on the right path cause one too many times... We want the return on investment but not willing to do what it takes to invest and grow it.  We want the path of least resistance. We want easy.  We want all the benefits but with minimal sacrifice.  We want a big pay off from little sweat equity.  We really just want to sit back and have God do his “genie” magic.  We want instant results because we’ve yet to develop endurance, determination, faithfulness, tenacity, persistence, perseverance, obedience, prayer, long suffering, diligent, work muscles.  We misunderstand rest as inactivity.  We inappropriately equate striving and hustle to be the same as hard and diligent work. We think prudent planning is not demonstrating faith in God.  We assume as long as we’re doing some activity in church or for church or in God’s name is the same as having sought the heart and mind of God for...

Feelings come and go but the faithfulness of God endures forever.  There is absolutely nothing more valuable and encouraging than the counsel or attentive, compassionate listening ear of a good and trusted friend. There is nothing more comforting than being able to express myself without fear of judgement, shame or condemnation. God is really first and foremost that faithful and true friend.  And if it were not enough for him to offer himself to us, he allows for people to come into our lives who end up being friend who are actually like family. They end up being our sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers.  If you have been ever so rich and fortunate to have those kinda of friends who are like family, please do not take them for granted. Also, pay the richness forward and be that kind of friend for someone else! And if you are in the category of those who are desperately longing, crying, aching and groaning to God in prayer for that type of community, I empathize dee...