December 2010 Blog Posts (72)

Reading John Piper's FUTURE GRACE. Wonderful read and lots of good thoughts on both faith and grace.

While the classic definition of faith is the one from Hebrews 11, I was wondering...what is your favorite definition of faith?

At last ,faith becomes sight. In prayer, praise God for  each step of your pilgrimage thank Him for His provision along the way and raise the eyes of  faith to your heavenly destination.

Let your heart cry out with joy, Even so, come ,Lord Jesus

Peace & Love  for the New Year

There are 117 different names for Jesus Christ in the Bible, each one a description of who he is, and what he desires to be in our lives.

The Prophet Isaiah said he would be called Immanuel, which means “God with us.” When the Angel spoke to Joseph he said, “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his…

I'm the world's worst at New Year's Resolutions. When I make them at all (which after years of guilt-filled feelings of disappointment for my inability to keep my resolutions) which isn't often, I tend to look at the things in my life that I don't like and try to fix them . . . weight gain, lack of exercise . . . Sound familiar?

This year, I met two adorable children on a senior adult trip to see the Christmas lights north of Atlanta. The children serenaded me all the way…

Meny people will look back  over the  past  year with a sense of accomplishment and hope . Others may have regrets and wish they had tackled life differently.Learning to set goals for your  life is an excellent way to  build encouragement into your daily routine, especially when you set  reasonable goals that you can  achieve without  fear of failure.Always begin the  goal setting process with  preyer.…

“Therefore, if anyone is united with the MESSIAH, he is a new creation – the old has passed; look, what has come is fresh and new!”  (2 Cor. 5:17)…

I was just sitting here thinking about the "Happy Holiday" vs. "Merry Christmas" debate. I'm tired of hearing about it. A commercial on TV said "Happy Holidays"... and I was surprisingly unaffected by it. And then I started thinking about the Christmas "holidays" of my childhood. I assisted my father in shopping for and placing "Santa's" presents under the tree for my siblings. Never thought much about why we did it. But I now can remember that we did it because we were American. And at that…

“Don’t boast about tomorrow for you don’t what the day may bring.”

-         Prov 27:1

Modern man thinks of time in linear terms.  We see it as a span from the beginning of time (whenever that might be) to the year 0 before Christ and the 1^st Century AD until today, 2010.  We think of the past as behind us and the future as ahead of us.  However, from ancient times, the Hebrews have the opposite orientation.  To them,…

“He who digs a pit may fall into it;

He who breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake.

He who quarries stones may get hurt by them,

He who chops wood puts himself in danger.

If the hatchet’s blade is blunt, and its user doesn’t sharpen it,

He will have to exert more effort; but the expert has the advantage of his skill.

If a snake bites before it is charmed,

The snake-charmer has no advantage.

-Ecclesiastes 10:8-11

Risk is a…

I grew up in a Christian home which was rich in Christmas tradition. After celebrating our "Santa Claus" we would all gather together to read the Christmas story from the Bible. Mom made it seem like it was just the natural thing to do. Since she led us children with a daily Bible passage each day of the year, having a devotional time on Christmas morning did not seem at all out of the ordinary. As we gather this Christmas let us all remember from whence we are hewn. May Christ and the Bible…

A few weeks ago, Tyler Charles interviewed me for a BuildingChurchLeaders.com download, which was recently published and contains seven excellent articles. My interview was recently posted on their site. They also published my article,…

From a friend of the Navigators in Malaysia…

A commentary: “How Many More Christmases?”

By Bernice Lee



Earlier this week I had lunch with a dear friend, one of the bravest ladies I know. A breast cancer survivor, she discovered last year that the cancer had snuck up on her again. I’m sure she had her share of long and hard discussions with her Maker following that discovery. While I was not privy to those deeply private conversations, I do know for a fact that…

It's Christmas time, and while I somewhat dread the thought of what gifts to buy for whom, there is nothing like choosing, wrapping, and giving a gift you know someone will love. Even the anticipation of waiting for the opening at Christmas adds enjoyment to the giving. Then the moment when the gift is placed in their hands, still wrapped, concealed, unknown - you know they're going to love it! The smiles of wondering as paper is torn, the surprise of recognition, the delight and even tears…

Don’t you just love “putting on” the decorations of Christmas?



We put the decorations on our tree, we put our favorite Christmas food on the stove, we put our lights on the house. Things begin to feel like Christmas when we start putting on all our Christmas decorations.



The decorations we put on for Christmas aren’t the essence of Christmas, they’re simply the evidence of Christmas. They’re more like reminders that Christmas is here. And you know we as Christians are…