Devotions (Page 33)

I was struck this week by the importance of going to God with more than questions… Asking questions and generally choosing curiosity over certainty is something I really value and think is an important shift for Christians to make. Especially those of us who have been Christians for many years! Our tendency can often be to rehearse certainty and to remind ourselves of what we know to be true. Which can be really great and faith-building in a lot of…

Dear LifeSpring Family, I wanted to share with you my latest memory verse in today’s devotions. It is a verse if not all, most of you have heard it before and some of you have even memorized it. The verse is 1 Chronicles 4:10 Wait for it…………… “Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from…

In 2018, our Hope Deacon – Joshua Wee – brought up the idea of giving winter & summer care packages. It was birthed when Josh saw a man asking for help at a routine red light. God gave him an idea that the church has adopted and will continue to adopt – to always have something to give, to simply care. As a confession, whenever I would see a person at a red light in need, my immediate reaction was…

Today I’d like to offer you a concept that you may or may not be familiar with. It goes like this: “Fear is a feeling just like every other feeling.” My agenda today is to strip down all power and authority we have consciously or unconsciously given to the idea, the feeling, the reason and even the spirit of fear. The world has used fear to control many narratives of the people and ideas of the world and we have…

Growing up, we always had pancakes on Saturdays. But not just any pancakes – Finnish pancakes! Instead of being thick and fluffy, like Canadian ones, Finnish pancakes are more like crepes. They’re much larger and thinner and even more delicious… in my opinion at least. All of this was my dad’s doing. He would mix the batter and fry up our pancake feast for us and even as we got older and started to try making them ourselves, it was…

My recent experience of a broken wrist has taught me some valuable lessons about brokenness. Most of all, God wanted me to remember His loving desire to heal and restore what’s broken and wounded. He proactively provided for that by creating our bodies with an amazing ability to heal! The more I learn about how broken bones heal, the more amazed I am by the way our Creator God designed our bodies to form new bone tissue to bridge the…

Dear LifeSpring Family, As I was reading today’s Daily Bread (July 18th) devotions, I was reminded and challenged. Reminded of our practice of doing Holy Communion every Sunday. And challenged my reasons for celebrating Holy Communion together every Sunday. The scripture reading for today’s Daily Bread devotions was from John 6:25-35. 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly,  truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate  your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that  perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son  of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”  28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of  God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you  believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then  what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?  31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is  written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said  to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the  bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from  heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven  and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this  bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me  shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. As you read the holy scriptures, please do some listening prayer…

One of the things that God brought to my attention was the way we treat others. I think it is safe to say that most of us, if not all, treat people well when everything is copacetic. When we’re all on the same page, when we’re all in agreement, when we’re all getting along but what God was challenging me on multiple fronts was to not punish people for their pain.  When God was speaking to me about this He…

Salt and Light 13 “You are the salt of the earth. … 14 “You are the light of the world. Matthew 5:13-15 God calls us to be salt and light in society.  This is especially difficult when the values of society go against what God’s word in the Bible.  Jesus teaches in the Be-Attitudes that when we speak to people in  society:                We come recognizing our poverty of spirit.                We come with tears                We come in humility                We…

This morning I woke up from the strangest dream… I was visiting my good friends Kelsi and Caleb Fullmer (who are actually a family I follow on Instagram and have never, ever met in real life). I had been eating white cheddar popcorn while Kelsi gave me a tour of their home. Her and I were laughing in the kitchen when Caleb came home and the very first thing he said was, “Why is there popcorn on the stairs??” For…

Dear LifeSpring Family, I have been trying to keep up with the young ones on the pastoral team in the area of scripture memory. It has not been an easy task. Dorothy has been my biggest and sadly, only cheerleader. She does not use Google calendar or for that matter, any written or electronic calendar. She remembers every appointment mentally in her head. So when I commented that I will be a good team player and memorize scripture along with…

Today I want to appreciate all you moms out there. Physical mama, spiritual mama, soon to be mama, one day mama – I actually want to appreciate every female in this house. If I ask you today why we appreciate the females in our lives – we could probably list 1000 things! We want to appreciate all the things you do – but not only do we want to appreciate the things our females do – more importantly we want…