My Thoughts and Reflections

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Exodus 3:5 (NIV) When we come to church each Sunday, we come expecting an encounter with God. However, do you expect an encounter with God on a daily basis too?  What do your daily encounters with God look like?  Are they a quick thirty second prayer to get the day going? Are they mealtime prayers and a quick one before you drift off to sleep?  Or, are they consistent meetings each day in scripture, prayer, and solitude?  Whenever our meetings with God take place and however our meetings with God take place, we’re still meeting with the one and only holy God of the universe!   When Moses met with God at the burning bush, he was not expecting to meet God and he certainly did not understand how he should have been prepared to be meeting with God too.  God told him to remove his sandals because he was standing on holy ground.  T...

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. - 1 John 4:11-12 When I read these verses this morning, I was struck by the words, “No one has ever seen God” and “God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”  Even though no one has seen God, God lives in us!  This means that anyone can see God when God’s love is shown through us!  People can see God when we love one another like God has loved us.  That love can only happen when God is living in us. As followers of Jesus Christ, it is our goal to emulate the one who we follow.  God loved us by sending his Son into the world as the sacrifice for our sins and the gateway for us into a redeemed relationship with God.  Jesus showed us what true love looks like throughout his life and ministry and especially through his death on the cross.  With that examp...