Soul Sister Time

I had an interesting conversation with a young woman recently. She summarized what she knew of Jesus Christ by stating : You expect me to believe that God became a half-God, half-man being who walked around the world for awhile, died on a cross, then rose again and wants me to eat his body once a week? You've got to admit what we believe about Jesus does sound a little strange. I told her that it does sound mysterious. As finite creatures, we find it difficult to understand an infinite God. It is a great mystery! I told her that I came to accept this profound mystery even more deeply as a result of what happened when I was on a mission trip in Guatemala. Our team was working with girls ages 12-18 who were labeled special needs . The variety of special needs was enormous. Over a hundred girls were housed together with only a few staff members to care for their needs. There were girls who had mental and physical handicaps, but the majority of the girls had been the victim of ...

            Julian of Norwich ( The Revelation of Divine Love ) says it best when she writes For by the great deed that our Lord shall do He shall save His word in all things and He shall make well all that is not well—though how it shall be done no creature below Christ knows or shall know until it is done .   God is at work in every moment of each of our lives.   God’s work goes on whether we are aware of it or not.   Most of the time, I am unaware of God’s great work.                 I love it when a familiar passage of Scripture brings fresh understanding.   I became more in awe of God’s work as I realized how incredible His work is while reading Acts 2.   Acts 2:5 says, Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven .   This one verse opened up so many realities to God’s great plans for us and...

Why would anyone reject the gospel? I asked myself this question again recently when I concentrated on Jesus’ last words to us in the Gospel of Luke. Luke 24:45-49. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. The gospel is the too-good-to-be-true good news! Bottom line, all God asks of us is repentance for the forgiveness of sins—so little on our part and so much on God’s part. The answer couldn’t be simpler, yet, to the majority of people in the world, it is absurd. What comes naturally to us is wanting our own way. It’s our desperate search for our own way that keeps us clinging to this w...

Recently I started tweeting because I wanted to use it to share thoughts about God and encourage others on their journey to know and love Him. Most of the time I tweet about thoughts that come to me after I've sent the weekly devotional. The tweets I write are also included on the Facebook page. I'm erratic in tweeting. I don't do it all the time. Sometimes I read or think something that must be tweeted. I've only been tweeting for few months so I have a lot to learn. I noticed that some tweets have the @ sign or the # sign. I asked my daughter what those signs mean. I look to her as my expert in tweeting because she is the only one in our family who uses it. She uses tweeting differently than I do. For her it is a way to keep up with her friends and let them know what she is up to. As a resident expert on tweeting, she answered my questions by giving me this example of something she might tweet: My mom is asking me questions about how to tweet #oldpeopleusingtweet...

I saw this video at http://www.godvine.com/Man-Dies-and-Returns-to-Life-on-the-Operating-Table-420.html    and it got me to thinking.   What was the life of the widow of Nain’s son like after he was resurrected by Jesus (Luke 15:11-16)?   What was God’s purpose for his life?   He was never mentioned again in the biblical literature.   There’s not much about Lazarus or Jarius’ daughter either (Luke 8:40-56).   The last time Jesus raised someone from the dead while He lived on earth was Lazarus (John 11:38-43).   John’s gospel implies that this action of Jesus, raising Lazarus from the dead, was the last straw for the religious Jews.   They became extremely threatened by Jesus as they saw their peers believing in Him after witnessing this miracle.               When I thought about the modern event, it made me wonder about these people who had such a supernatural event occur in their l...

Robert Fitzpatrick spent most of his retirement savings on getting the word out that Jesus would return through the clouds at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on May 21, 2011. When I read rapture predictions I immediately wonder, Why does this man think God would tell him this date when He told us that date is not for us to know? You don't need to know Greek or Aramaic (original languages) to see that clearly. Jesus does not know the date. The angels don't know the date. Jesus told us that only the Father knows the date (Matthew 24:36). By the way, Jesus is just fine with not knowing. He trusts God. The Bible is very clear that we will not be told a date and time. You can read it from Jesus’ mouth—Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, Acts 1 or from Paul’s perspective 1 Thessalonians 5. We have been told what we need to know. It’s not that we should not think about Jesus return. We should. I found it ironic that my daily devotional reading on May 21, 2011 was Acts 1:11. It sa...

. My Identity             My husband does everything he can to protect my online identity.  Those who know me well wrote to inform me that my identity had been hijacked and that I should inform Brian.  They know that I am not that great with computer issues but that I am married to an expert.  I was very troubled by this experience as I hate that someone would steal my identity.              In going through this incident, I realized that my identity couldn't really be stolen.  People who knew me knew that I wouldn't just send a link without an explanation.  Even if you only know me through the weekly devotions I write, you probably didn't believe that it was me writing without a spiritual application.  Hopefully we are all a little wary of mysterious links even if they are sent from a reliable email address.  There is more to a personal identity than just an address book.              I'm sure you know where I'm going with this.  It is so common to have our id...