Surely……This word rings out loud and clear for me from the 23rd Psalm. And there is more: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” But it is the word surely that has resonated with me over the last […]

  Here are six steps that will lead to a deeper relationship with God, to your own healing of all the pain and suffering you have experienced, to your own transformation to the person you were created to be by stripping away all the cultural “stuff” that was laid on us in our growing-up years, […]

Dear Lord, For the first time I am beginning to connect the dots of your presence in my life. I started this process a few years back when I did my spiritual autobiography with a women’s group. Then I could see you hand helping, guiding me at various pivotal points in my life. But just […]

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” [Gal 5:22-3] Fruit is the product of a plant or tree at the end of a long season of growth from spring to summer or fall. And so it is with the fruit of the Spirit—it is the […]

I’ve been doing some research into the Gospels lately about what did Jesus actually say about God. And it’s been interesting to see what qualities he is promoting about God. This weeks’ post and next weeks’ share this common theme. First and foremost, he talks about God as the gardener and the pruner[John 15: 1-17]. […]

  We know what prayer is, right? The Lord’s Prayer. Petitions. The prayer is in the words that we send up to God. Those are prayers, wonderful ones, yes, but only a small part of praying. Praying mostly consists of opening ourselves up—heart, mind, soul and body—to the presence of God. We can access his […]

One way to look at our lives here on Earth is that we are born out of Eden into a land of free will. I know—I am altering the Biblical story in Genesis a bit! But Genesis Chapter 3 seems to me to be suggestive at least that Adam and Eve ruined our chances here […]

Life itself is such a miracle! And having a life here, being a part of this great planet is such a privilege! The beauty, the interconnec-tedness of all species, the incredible variety of plants and animals, rocks and minerals! What a gift life is! And what a God who created it all! Can you even […]

In the last two weeks I’ve been writing about how disfunctionally we see ourselves and God, that if we could clean the lenses through which we view life and ourselves, we would see that we are already loved by God, just as we are. We have nothing to do except to see this reality. We […]

There are two ways to be compassionate. From a cultural viewpoint compassion is caring about another person. It might be being with someone who is grieving and helping them through it. It might be feeding the homeless. Or visiting someone who is sick. It often comes with pity attached, feeling sorry for the other person, […]