Soul Sister Time

            Advent is the season of waiting.  Even the colors of the candles witness the anticipation of waiting.  The first three candles that you light are traditionally purple, while the fourth candle is pink signifying the approaching light of Christ on Christmas.             Although the waiting of Advent is familiar and easy to calculate, it persistently calls us back to an uncomfortable reality.  We are longing for, desiring, and anticipating what we really want but don’t quite have.  Waiting is uncomfortable.              Although I can be sure that December 25 will come, many of the realities I wait for are not as certain.  Either way, waiting is rarely comfortable and never fun.              Advent has taught me how to wait.  It shows me the value of patience, anticipation and the value of waiting before you receive.              Jesus shows me how to wait.  As I wait on Him, He is waiting for me.  I am almost learning to find joy in waiting by learning the joy of

                        If you were to ask people who know me, they would say: Debi says God is enough !  Trusting in God is the foundation of my life.             Something you may not know about me is that I have a deep need to be right.  Recently I’ve been faced with a problem that in my mind has a right answer.  When I am right, I assume God will back me up!  Not in this case.  Some very godly people asked me to go along with what wasn’t right in my mind.  They didn’t ask me to do something wrong they just asked me to put love before justice, and my right solution was to put justice before love.  (Um-that should have been the first clue that I wasn’t as right as I thought I was!)             Is God enough?  I think I’m enough.  I was fully committed to my plan.  I didn’t want to do it another way.  I understood that the other way wasn’t a wrong way.  I could grasp the rationale for doing it that way.  It was definitely the more humble and loving way.  The problem was—it wasn

I wanted to write something encouraging us to pray for France today. When I received this note from Lorrie, who is one of the people who edit my devotions the week before, I decided to send this one anyway.  Please pray for my church’s missionary in Paris, Noemi Aguirre, that she can be a light in the spiritual darkness.  Pray for spiritual revival in that city to come to know the true light! This devotion is so poignant in relation to the killings in Paris. For me, the cup this week has been the willingness to pray for those who kill to stamp out freedom and Christianity. But now I understand this cup releases the Holy Spirit into the world and touches the hearts of those who are hardened against our savior Jesus Christ. Thank you so much for this devotion of remembrance and the call to drink the cup that God offers us, the cup of salvation, love, and peace. Blessings, Lorrie Do you Drink the Cup?             This past Sunday I had the honor of assisting in the Communion

            Have you ever experienced holy jealousy?  I know you know what unholy jealousy feels like.  We have all had that tinge of jealousy, especially towards someone close to us who seems to always get what we want.  But there is a holy jealousy.             I guess the closest I have come to knowing what holy jealousy feels like was the day my son turned 18, and we were releasing him from the requirement of attending church on Sundays in order to live in our home.  He and I sat together in our regular pew and followed the motions of a typical Sunday service.  He was as present as he had been in years past.  There were no outward signs that my heart was breaking.              As the service progressed I could not help myself.  I experienced a deep sorrow that only now I can identify as holy jealousy.  My sorrow was not for myself. My spiritual well-being had no bearing on whether my son sat beside me in church each Sunday.  In fact, I was freer to worship without his occasi

                        The Saints are some of my heroes.  I want to have the same kind of passionate love for God that I sense in them.  Hebrews 12:1 says: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us .  When I read this verse, I think about those who lived centuries ago whose words and instructions for spiritual growth still resonate with me today.  I’ve gotten to the place where it is hard for me to read modern spiritual writers.  I value more highly the authors whose writings have survived the test of time and continue to be translated and reprinted in a modern age.              I encourage every Christian to read the Christian classics.  Three to start with are St Augustine’s Confessions , Thomas A Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ and Brother Lawrence’s  Practicing the Presence .  There are so many amazing women w