On Mother’s Day, we shared about our first miscarriage as we said Happy Mother’s Day to those who’ve struggled to conceive or had a loss. My Father’s Day gift this year represents something of a milestone for this story. Little Evie came in time for Father’s Day. Our journey in bringing her into this world was bumpy, to say the least, but it gave us a new perspective on life and a renewed, heartfelt desire to comfort and help those who are on a similar journey. Because of this, I’ve been working to pull together a Father’s Day gift for you should you (or anyone you know) find yourself on this journey, trying to conceive. But, before giving you that gift, I’d like to...

In the story of the adulterous woman that we discussed last week, it’s inspiring to see the way that Jesus showed His love for her when He defends her and refuses to condemn her. We stopped just short of the end of this story though. At the end, He says one more thing, “Go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8:11) Jesus was being so kind and loving, telling her she was not condemned. But then, in the very next breath, it almost sounds like He was condemning her or at least condemning her lifestyle. It’s easy to feel like His command, “sin no more”, was an example where His love took a back seat to righteousness. But, we know from our first post of this series that everything He does is loving. So, where was the love in...

God is for you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. His love for you is completely selfless. That’s who He is. In our last post, we saw that we need to know God as a person and who He is to know what love is. I ended with John 17:26: “I made Your name known to them and will make it known, so that the love You have loved Me with may be in them and I may be in them.” When we see true love in action through what He has done, it inspires us to love Him and others. As a result, the same love He has can be in us! Let’s take a look at His love in action so that we can be inspired in this way. Because He is all-knowing, He knew what would happen when He created the world. He knew that if He gave us free will, we...

How would you define love? I can only imagine how vastly different each person’s definition would be. Even as I looked at the definition in the dictionary, it was incredibly vague. The Bible, however, has a lot to say about love and gets very specific about what it is and isn’t. I’d like to start this series in a familiar verse from 1 John 4. Verse 8 states, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” That last phrase, made up of only three words, comes off pretty bold compared to the vague definition in the dictionary. God is love. Could this phrase possibly mean that love is God? Let’s tackle this question with...

Last week I promised to share something God showed me that helped me see the gift of salvation in a whole new light as we finish this series on Resting in Our Weakness. It comes from the end of our passage in Matthew 11; in verse 30, Jesus says “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” At first glance, I have to admit that I didn’t really see much difference between those two statements. But in writing this series, I finally saw what He meant and how He saved us from what each of these statements represents. Let's...

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt 11:29) His example of gentleness and humility are the prerequisites that enable us to be at rest. In the first post of this series we explored the first of these virtues, gentleness (meekness), and saw how meekness allows us to receive His yoke so we can follow Him. This week let’s explore humility to see what connection it has to rest. The second word ‘humble’ comes from the Greek word ‘tapeinos’. This word describes “the person who depends on the Lord rather than self”. At first glance, this...

When Monica and I got married, we planned to wait a year before having kids, but apparently God had other plans. Abigail was born just 10 months after we got married, literally as soon as possible. Even Elijah was born just 14 months after Abigail. While the timing wasn’t exactly planned, we were grateful. After Elijah turned one, we decided we were ready to try for another baby. On October 31st, 2018, Monica surprised me with a positive pregnancy test in hand. I couldn’t have been more excited! Over the next five days, we told our parents, debated names, and started daydreaming about the future. I left for work on November 5th like any other Monday. Around lunchtime, I heard my phone ring...

“Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) That’s a promise I’d like to cash in on. But, how do we? It goes on to say, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30) I wish I could say ‘Amen’, but when I really think about it, I’m not so sure that’s how I feel. It doesn’t always seem easy and light. Thankfully, Jesus tells us more in this passage: “Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt 11:29) In order to find rest, we must learn from His example of gentleness and humility. In this series we’ll explore each of these virtues and see how they enable us to rest! This week let’s explore gentleness. This...

God desires to bring us closer. His voice has the power to change us for the better, but sin can cause us to hide our hearts from Him. In hiding our hearts, we are unable to hear His voice. He’s aware of our weakness though and longs to help us, not to shame us. We must trust His gentleness when we feel that He wants to change the topic of conversation. But, now that we have heard His voice, how do we know that He will listen to our prayers? Do our prayers matter? We do indeed have...

We all want to hear God's voice.  When I felt led to start this website, I wanted to be sure it’s what God wanted.  So, I set aside time to take a retreat and pray for God’s direction.  On the first day, I sat down and wrote out my questions: “Should I start a website?”, “Do I need to go to seminary first?”, “What should I write about?”, etc.  I got a hot cup of tea, sat down outside with my Bible next to me and asked my first question… no answer… my second question… no answer.  No matter which question I asked, all I got was a chorus of crickets.  If I’m honest, I...