Springs of Living Water or a cesspool?

This morning’s newsfeed is abuzz with reports that President Trump has likened countries in the global south, specifically Haiti, El Salvador, and all of Africa, to cesspools; his word choice was coarser than mine, however. Though multiple reports confirm the comments, the president denies the particular words, but says his language was tough.

The president’s reported words are troubling if for no other reason than the continued degrading of our public discourse. But there are other reasons. Christians know the President’s cesspool countries to be a part of the world our God loves so much as to send his only son for its redemption and renewal. Christians never see a cesspool. They see the possibility of a spring of Living Water bubbling up to eternal life. Continue reading →

Last week I invited you to tell some stories of how God had been at work in your lives in 2017.  Thank you for your responses; they are a gift to all of us. Some of our stories are printed below. While not attributed, some of the posts suggest their author more clearly than others. The point is not to guess who wrote what, but to listen to the ways God was at work in the lives of those who shared. I find these words encouraging and helpful, and pray that you will, too. You may not have had time to write your response, but as you read these, consider again, how was God at work in your life in the past year – and how is he your hope for years to come?

So, God at work in 2017: Continue reading →

They will be everywhere for the next few days. It may be best to ignore the majority of them. You know, those “year in review” reports at your favorite news source, on social media, or in whatever niche your special interest happens to lie. I looked at the NBC News Year In Review and found in depressing. 2017 was not bad on all fronts, however. I once bought Becky a gift from a knitting supply company and found myself on their mailing list. I’m not kidding, there’s a “Knitting Year In Review” post they’ve invited me to view. It turns out that 2017 was a pretty good year in the world of knitting.

But what about your world, knitter or not? As you look back on 2017, what do you see?  “Our God, help in ages past, our hope for years to come,” Isaac Watts writes in his paraphrase of psalm 90.  How did you see God’s helping, sustaining, joy-giving, sorrow-comforting, hope-inspiring presence in this year now nearly past?

I would love to hear stories of God at work in 2017.  Would you be willing to share one or more with me?  You can text, Facebook Message, or email me (LPC readers who read the email version of this post can simply reply to the email). 

Unless you say otherwise, I will alter your stories for anonymity sake and then post some of the responses – an encouragement for those of us who journeyed with Christ through 2017.

Talk of taxes was in the air. Caesar Augustus had ordered the taxation, the Affordable Oppression and Extortion Act (AOEA), and the pundits were scrambling to figure out just what it would mean to people throughout the Empire. While the child tax credit and the standard deduction were up, experts were still not sure how betrothal would be treated under the new law. Would a small business such as a village carpentry shop be able to take advantage of the steep reduction in corporate taxes? The threshold for claiming medical expense deductions had been lowered, but most tax law professionals questioned the deductibility of manger straw, though swaddling clothes might meet the AOEA definition of medically necessary supplies. Continue reading →

We began our meeting the other night with the leader asking each of us to share our favorite Christmas carol and to say something about it. I paged quickly through the hymnal in my mind and stopped at “In the Bleak Midwinter.”

My favorite recording of “In the Bleak Midwinter” is this by Corrinne May.

The images of the first stanzas of the hymn are painted from poet Christina Rossetti’s memories of winters in Nineteenth Century England; those in the last verses from the First Century and a story told from a little town in the Judean hill country called Bethlehem and from the fields nearby where shepherds were keeping watch over their sheep by night. Continue reading →