A New Direction

What is it about a porch setting that calms the spirit? Is it the peaceful setting, listening to the nature around? Is it the way it gathers people together to talk and reminisce about days gone by? Each spring I look forward to the day that I can sit on my front porch and listen to the beautiful symphony that plays each morning.  The whistle of the soft breeze.  The music of the waking birds.  The grass and trees coming to life.  Its symbolic of a new start.  A new day.  A clean slate. Don't we all wish we could just wipe the slate clean and start over?  Wipe away all the mistakes, all the hardships, the anger, resentment, hurt and frustration that life has given us?   I think porches give us hope. The quiet setting, the glimpse of yesterdays gone by, and the HOPE of today.  Hope is knowing that you can receive a desire in the future. The possibility of receiving encourages our heart and gives us Hope.   A desire becomes a ...

Its almost that time...the day we as Christians remember what Christ went through for us.   He was scourged. He was hung on the cross to die. But between the scourging and the cross, something happened that wasn't ordered.  Matthew 27:27-31  Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28  They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29  and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30  They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31  After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. They were given two orders that day - scourge him then take him to the hill and kill him.  But they had other ideas....

  You have a dream...a goal...things you desire in your heart to do, see, say, be.  But God says "Wait my child.  Not yet".  Oh, isn't that hard to hear?  You feel like hes keeping you from your blessings and you don't understand why he's making you wait. Jeremiah 29:11-13 says "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord , “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.   Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you .   You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." We can mistakenly think that God’s plan is always going to be a “feel good” plan with the intent to make us happy. Jeremiah’s message in these verses is actually radically different.  He’s writing to a group of people who are being held captive, and are in exile from their homeland.  He’s writing to let them know that although they’re not where they would have expe...

What makes a friend?  When you think of your close friendships, what is the common denominator that holds you together? Mutual trust? Honesty? Laughter? Common interests? I have been thinking on friendships lately.  I have many acquaintances, but only a few TRUE friends.  Those friends you can tell everything to and you know they will not judge you.  If you need to cry, they will lend their shoulder.  If you need to yell, they will be the wall to bounce the anger off of.  If you need to laugh, they will laugh along with you. What a friend we have in Jesus.  Isn't he the truest friend we could have?  All our griefs and shame to bear.  What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer.  We have decisions to make in life.  What is the one thing you want to do? Talk it over with a close friend. We have choices, trials, sorrows, grief - we want to share it with someone because the load is too heavy to carry on our own....