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...

"You will seek me and find me  when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV) How often do you find yourself seeking God, let alone with your whole heart?  I find that quite often, it is so easy to seek God on a part-time basis and call it good enough instead of seeking him with all of my heart.  However, I must confess, when I seek God only partly, giving him only some of my attention, I do not often find God! Just two verses after God promises that his plans for us are fully known by him and that they are for our benefit and give us hope, God continues to tell us that all we need to do to find him is to seek him with all of our hearts! If you have not taken the time yet today to seek God and to seek him with your whole heart, stop what you're doing and do it now!  When we orient our lives around seeking God instead of trying to "fit" God into our busy lives, we will set ourselves up to be living into the plans that God has for...

"I always put the LORD in front of me; I will not stumble because he is on my right side."  Psalms 16:8 (CEB) This verse is a recognition of the truth of God's guidance in our lives. A similar verse is one of my childhood favorites, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (KJV). As long as we put God first in our lives, we cannot fail and we will not stumble and fall because he will be right there at our side to keep us on the "straight and narrow." How good is it to know that it is impossible to fail in life when we place God at the front of our lives? I believe that this is great news that cannot be repeated enough!  This truth applies to all aspects of life, especially parenting. As parents, it is our responsibility to model this truth to our children and to teach them to do the same in their own lives. It is important to not be deceived into thinking that this is a promise for an easy life, for easy parenting, or for a...

"I always put the LORD in front of me; I will not stumble because he is on my right side."  - Psalm  16:8 (CEB) A popular memory verse in my church growing up was Psalm 119:105, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path" (NIV1984).  Our verse for the week is a similar recognition of the truth of God's guidance in our lives.  As long as we put God first in our lives, we cannot fail and we will not stumble and fall because he will be right there at our side to keep us on the "straight and narrow."   How good is it to know that it is impossible to fail in life when we place God at the front of our lives?  I believe that it is great news!  However, d o not be deceived into thinking that this is a promise for an easy life or for a life absent of roadblocks, failures, and sin, but it is a promise that we can take hold of when we take the daily initiative to place Christ at the forefront of our lives.  This is why it is so import...