This blog is designed to create community for believers and provide support for seekers. I encourage all readers to share their faith in an effort to lift and encourage one another.
“The Bible is not the light of the world, it is the light of the Church. But the world does not read the Bible, the world reads Christians! “You are the light of the world.””
― Charles H. Spurgeon
Father, fill me with Your light. Let it shine out so that others may see You.
Thank you, Lord, for sending Your spirit to teach us and to express the concerns of our hearts to God in prayer.
A few years ago, the worst ice storm in decades hit my town. Over three quarters of an inch of ice coated the area, downing power lines and plunging more than 60,000 homes and businesses into darkness.
The icy outdoors created a surreal fantasy world, with homes, grass, trees, streets, and mailboxes painted with a clear, icy glaze. Trees bent over, their limbs dragging the ground under their heavy loads. Many, unable to bear the load, snapped, littering roofs, yards, sidewalks, and streets with their crystal branches.
A few days later, the clouds cleared; nature’s ice castles sparkled brilliantly, their prisms of ice flinging crystal colors everywhere.
Saturday afternoon, I ventured outdoors to watch the sun glisten off the icy trees. Everything drooped under the weight of the ice—according to newscasters the ice was four times the weight of the trees it covered. The trees bent so far that the tips of their branches brushed the snow-covered ground.
I stood in the middle of the backyard and gazed at the trees surrounding me. The sun, striking the ice-covered branches, turned my backyard world brilliant, but what really struck me were all the new sounds. As I stood there, the whole chorus sang. The main melody: the constant drip, drip, drip of water falling from thousands of icicles. All around me I heard this constant dripping as the sun melted the ice.
With the breeze, the click and clack of ice-covered branches brushing each other added to the tune. Plop! I turned and looked at trembling tree branches, freed from their weight of ice. Every few seconds I heard another plop as chunks of ice tumbled to the ground.
Occasionally a loud crash resounded as a large ice fragment hit the branch below and tumbled from branch to branch before landing on the softer earth. Before long, I noticed the lower branches of the mulberry tree no longer touching the ground. I wondered how long it would take before all the ice melted from the trees, and the branches, freed from their burden, would once more reach heavenward.
How often do our souls become ice-coated? We are burdened and bent over, not with the weight of ice, but with the weight of our guilt and our sins. Heavy with guilt, we labor to lift our arms heavenward. Some, unable to bear this burden, snap and break. Others merely look down, unable to praise God.
Fortunately, we can eliminate the burdens weighing us down. Like the sun shining on the ice-laden trees, God’s grace frees us from our burdens. When in repentance we sincerely beg God’s son to shine his light of forgiveness, the hard shell of guilt begins to crack. Before long, the ice coating our souls melts. Soon we can raise our arms heavenward, look up and praise our maker.
Father, thank you for melting away my heavy burden of guilt.
“Right now, we wear our souls on the inside. But one day we will be “clothed in righteousness” as we wear our souls on the outside, brilliant and glorious.”
Joni Eareckson Tada
This beautiful image–it brightens even the gloomiest day.
Father, thank you for the little things–a quote, a lovely ice formation, a smile–that brighten our days and enable us to contemplate your greatness.
Well, this one certainly makes one think about attitude toward others, right?
Lord, show me when I am judging others. Remind me that that is Your job, not mine. Teach me ways to effectively show others Your love and grace.
Lord, thank you for equipping me to stand up to the devil’s schemes.
New Year’s Resolutions
Many of us make New Year’s resolutions every year. We resolve to lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more, keep our house and office clean, and be kinder to family and friends. People make all different types of resolutions, intending to keep them. How often do you keep your resolutions? How often do you think others keep their resolutions—at least longer than a few weeks? If you reviewed your resolutions weekly, do you think you would be more likely to keep them? I tend to forget yearly resolutions, but I am more likely to follow through on weekly resolutions. Try one or more of these weekly Christian resolutions:
Choosing one resolution is the first step toward renewing your spiritual life. Reviewing your resolution on a weekly or even daily basis will help you to better remember and keep it. To more easily enable you to do this, consider posting your resolution in a visible place. When you see it, ask God to help you keep it. You might consider sharing your resolutions with a trusted friend. We know that “all things are possible” with God, even keeping resolutions.
Colossians 1:9-11a “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might.”
Father, as we contemplate this new year, reveal Your ways to enrich our spiritual lives and better reflect Your spirit living within us. Help us to make spiritual resolutions, to review them regularly, and to grow ever closer to You.
Food for thought as we end this year:
“True faith rests upon the character of God and asks no further proof than the moral perfections of the One who cannot lie.”
― A W Tozer
Lord of all, help our faith grow.
Let your light shine for the world to see.
Lord, may we always reflect your light to the world.
Merry Christmas!
May your heart have room for the Christ child today.
May it have room for the risen Savior all year long.
Thank you, Lord, for sending your son, Jesus, the Christ to save us all.
Growing Our Faith Together 