Thoughts Along the Journey

The following article was on today's Christianity Today website. Let us all join together in prayer for their family. STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN LOSES YOUNGEST DAUGHTER IN DRIVEWAY ACCIDENT by Anne Thomas, Friday, May 23, 2008 Christians the world over have been expressing their sympathy for Grammy Award-winning singer Steven Curtis Chapman after his 5-year-old daughter was killed in an accident on the family’s driveway on Wednesday. Maria Sue Chapman was the youngest of three Chinese girls adopted by Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth, after a visit to China awoke in them a deep love for the country and its people. She was hit by a car driven by one of her brothers on the driveway of the family home in Franklin Tennessee in what local authorities have described as a “tragic accident”. The Chapmans have three biological children, two teenage sons Will Franklin and Caleb, and 21-year-old daughter Emily. Brian DeVos, manager of Michigan operations for Bethany Christian Services and ...

"What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for r...

I have just read what is supposed to be the last post for our dear Ragamuffin Diva , Claudia Mair Francis Burney. We're going to miss you, dear friend, but I'm still looking forward to the MANY books you will publish! God bless!!!

How is that I can go for days, or even weeks, without even one idea for a blog post...and then I get too many ideas all at once??? First, happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. And for those who long to be mothers, my prayers are with you. May God fill your day with thankfulness for all His blessings. Second, I have to share a new photo of "my" Isaiah. He's growing up so fast! In this pic, he's "helping" his grandpa with the mower. Isn't he just too, too cute?! (Don't worry. The mower was not running!) Third, tomorrow is Pentecost Sunday, too. This is something God is reminding me to really focus on. You see, I grew up in the Assemblies of God. Our "distinctive" was the "pentecostal experience": speaking in tongues. Yet it seemed that every year, Pentecost Sunday mostly just got a mention in the church bulletin, without there being much focus on why we had Pentecost Sunday, the history of the day in the church, o...

One of today's Scripture readings is from Acts 20. This section especially caught my attention: "And from Miletus he (Paul) sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they came to him, he said to them: 'You yourselves know how I lived among you all the time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which befell me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable , and teaching you in public and from house to house...' " (vs. 17-20, RSV) The highlighted portion really struck me. Paul didn't hold back anything from them that was "profitable". In other words, anything that would help them draw closer to Christ and live more like Him. Even if they sometimes had to be hard words. If you've ever read any of Paul's epistles, you know he sometimes had to use "tough love." He basically showed ...