How do we learn things, absorb them as truth into our inner beings, and consider as truth things we have absorbed by osmosis. (For you scientists out there, I am not using this term in the strict scientific sense, but as a usually effortless, often unconscious assimilation.) Watching a parade with my two-and-a-half-year-old grandson made… Read More
Philippians 1:25-26 God Has a Plan for Me
Paul was convinced he would get out of prison and continue journeying to spread the Good News. But that wasn’t God’s plan. I have often had the same experience–thinking I know where God is leading me, and suddenly there’s a U-turn. But I don’t have to worry. God has a plan for me. Philippians… Read More
Don’t forget to ask, “Who?”
“He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.” (John1:10 NIV) A baby, hours old, turns her face toward her mother’s voice. She recognizes familiar sounds, soothing and secure from when she was being formed. A dog in the house hears the family’s car turn… Read More
Philippians 1:18-24 Life or Death?
I started to make a list of the pros and cons of staying here on earth and going through some pretty unpleasant things (as Paul was experiencing) or being in heaven with God and having a glorified body. And while I look forward to heaven, I think God has instilled in us a will to… Read More
Destination: Iowa
Moving every three to seven years was a fact of my life growing up. It’s wasn’t something we got to choose—that’s just the way it was. At 18, I moved east halfway across the country to go to college. Three years later and married, we moved to the Chicago area, my husband’s stomping ground. After… Read More
Philippians 1:18-19 Prayer and Response
What makes Paul happy? The fact that the message about Christ is being told. So, he’s rejoicing at the same time that he wants a get-out-of-jail card. What does he know? That his friends are praying for him and the Holy Spirit is helping him. That’s why he has hope. That’s why he can rejoice… Read More
Planting GPS devices in your neighborhood
Biblical parable, Matthew 13:3–9 Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the… Read More
Kathleen S Evenhouse 