Soul Sister Time

              We will never really worship God until we learn to love Him.  Loving God is impossible until we walk through our rage against Him.  I say this as a person from whom others expect that I will have a lot of rage at God.  Honestly, it has been quite some time since I have experienced utter raged against God.  Not that you should be impressed.  It is embarrassing to admit the angry outbursts I expressed toward God in my past that brought me to this point.  When I was in my early twenties, I could be outraged because I stubbed my toe!  After a long and fretful pattern of rage, God meeting me in my anger, and my realization that God is always right and I am always wrong, I have discovered the freedom in bypassing genuine rage against God in my later years.  I fully understand the lonely and hopeless feeling when one is trapped in anger with God.  Our anger with God distances us from His love, power and presence.  Yet there is no way to get through the wall other than to hone

              When I cry out my broken heart to God, I realize that He is listening to far worse situations, yet still giving full attention to what is happening to me.  Even the evening news does not contain the atrocities that men commit against one other every day.  Many question whether God can be good when He permits so much suffering in the world.  I cannot fathom the cries that reach God’s ears from our planet in one hour.  If we only knew a fraction of the evil in the world, I’m sure we would go insane.  How does God survive His broken heart for all the ways we sin and hurt each other and live so far from who He created us to be?               At Easter we get to see God’s broken heart in person.  No one describes it better than Max Lucado in “The Upper Room Disciplines 2010: It is a stark scene. Jesus praying in Gethsemane, saying, “My heart is ready to break with grief. …” Does this look like the picture of a saintly Jesus resting in the palm of God? Hardly. We see an

              What is the worst thing you think could happen to you?  There are so many options in a fallen world that it is hard to consider the worst.  We try not to think about it.  We do think we are going through the worst thing when we lose a loved one, are betrayed by a friend or family, sent to prison, or become the victim of a crime.  You know the worst thing that has happened to you.  You can think of someone for whom you are grateful that what happened to that person didn’t happen to you.               The world is full of frightening and dreaded options of worst case scenarios.  When you read the Bible, it is not hard to decide what the worst thing that could happen in your lifetime would be.  The Bible makes it clear that the worst is that you do not believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and be saved.               That sounds like a Sunday School answer doesn’t it?  It doesn’t feel that bad to say “No Thank You” to God.  Many don’t even recognize the day that th

              John wrote that there are three that testify,  the water, the blood and the Spirit, in 1 John 5:7-8: “ For there are three that testify:   the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement .”  John witnessed the water and the blood that flowed from Jesus’ side.  He was the only Gospel writer who was standing at the foot of the cross when this spiritually significant, physical reality signifying death happened.                What did John mean when he wrote that the water and blood, along with the Spirit, testify?  You can’t help but think he is referring to Good Friday when he references the water and the blood.  After it was all finished, Jesus had committed His Spirit to God’s hands, He then proclaimed in a loud voice that IT IS FINISHED!  There was one more lesson from the cross.  Near the end of the day it came time to speed up the death of the crucified.  One soldier had the task of committing yet another act of brutality against the condem