Devotions (Page 20)

After having a discussion with both my father in-law and my brother in law, I picked up on an unusual “gem” that they both shared in their respective fields that I thought was really deep. They both mentioned that some of their limitations in their respective fields is the lack of land and property available to build in order to expand. Being innovators, they both seemed to have come to similar conclusions. That is, when you can’t build wide, you…

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”1 John 3:16-18 I shared how God…

Dear LifeSpring Family A few weeks ago, I finished a course that was offered to us missionaries in Power To Change. Soul Care taught and reminded me to look deeply and care for my soul. In doing this, it brought to the surface the pride in my life that I still default to when hard pressed.  Below is the devotion from Soul Care that challenged the way I sometimes think and operate – Pretend, Presume and Push.  How about you? …

Last Friday at Wildfire, we had a different lesson plan for the night: instead of one of our leaders teaching us, we simply got out our Bibles, read through the passage from the lesson, and discussed it.  I really enjoyed that discussion. I didn’t know it was possible to squeeze so much out of 9 verses, but we thoroughly dissected and analyzed each part of the passage and came up with some pretty good takeaways. Our discussion was memorable because…

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms and women in the Lifespring family! There are so many ways that you give life to those around you through your care, generosity, and love. Alongside those who have had the opportunity to physically parent kids, there are countless ways spiritual, social, physical, and beyond that the women of Lifespring give life to others. Personally, I’ve received so much from my own mom, from Theresa, and from my two daughters. On Mother’s Day,…

Psalm 68:6 God sets the lonely in families Last week on a cold and rainy night around 10pm, I received a call from my office manager that one of our staff had become homeless. In trying to help this young man find shelter, there was a lot of back and forth and scouring the internet to try to find affordable housing. The shelters were full, it was too late to rent places, it was all in all very stressful.  In…

One of the hardest things I needed to adjust to in my years of missions/times of worship in various African churches, was the repetition. Whether I was singing with sisters and brothers in Swaziland, Mozambique, Uganda or South Sudan, the choruses would repeat for what seemed like an eternity. And I was impatient, and hot and tired and hungry and uninterested in singing the same things over and over again. One day, one of the choruses struck a chord in…

Life can get busy, and before you know it, weeks and months pass us by.  There are so many good things we can work towards, but good is the enemy of great.  Our ultimate goal is to be in alignment with God, but there are many things that can detract us from it.  On Sunday, one key element of the message is the importance of establishing a reference point.  In the absence of a well defined reference point, it’s easy to…

Dear LifeSpring Family, While I know it is not the Christmas season, I was reminded of Matthew 1:23 last week while I was in Orlando.  “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). Last week I was at CRU International Head Office in Orlando for our semi-annual World Wide Day of Prayer. Our President encouraged us to never forget that our Lord Jesus Christ is with us. For sometimes, in our passion, eagerness and love for the King, we get so busy doing the King’s work and…

I’ve been studying Habakkuk with my BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) class, and something that stood out was the ending of the book:  “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls — Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God…

It’s one thing to sing along to a catchy worship song about agreeing to “Make Room” for God and it’s another thing, entirely, to truly surrender ourselves to whatever it is that God is directing us towards… In Jeremiah 29, we read about a letter that is sent from Jeremiah (aka, from God) to the people of Israel who had been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon. When you imagine the relief of hearing directly from God in a place of…

It’s one thing to sing along to a catchy worship song about agreeing to “Make Room” for God and it’s another thing, entirely, to truly surrender ourselves to whatever it is that God is directing us towards… In Jeremiah 29, we read about a letter that is sent from Jeremiah (aka, from God) to the people of Israel who had been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon. When you imagine the relief of hearing directly from God in a place of…