THOUGHTS TO START YOUR DAY!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. -Isaiah 9:6 What is peace? As defined by the world it is: 1. freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility 2. freedom from or the cessation of war or violence. But the peace we are given from God is Jesus, and the peace he offers is: Peace that transcends the world view Peace that calms our

GOD’S GREAT LOVE…! (Keep reading - I’ll complete this sentence below!) This third week of Advent brings us to consider the matter of love which needs clarification in our current culture. Our society, like the ancient world, sees love at best as a reciprocal love, a mutual affinity for another, a sort of “I’ll-scratch-your-back-if-you’ll-scratch-mine” kind of relationship. At worst, love was frequently depicted in the depths of sensuality and eroticism that tended to object

This week, we light the candle of JOY as we mark the time remaining before we celebrate the birth of Jesus. I have spent quite a bit of time over my life contemplating, studying, and wrestling with the meaning of the word "joy". Since the word is also my first name, I wanted to understand it and to live it out in my life. For the Christian, the word "joy" takes on a new meaning. When you look up the definition of "joy" in the dictionary you will find on definition of, "a stat

Most often when we hear the word ‘hope’ used in a sentence it is something like, “Gee, I hope it doesn’t rain today,” or “I hope I can find a good parking space at the mall.” It is really nothing more than a random wish on a whim. This is not what the word hope means as we find it in the Bible. Throughout scripture, hope is defined as a pleasant, confident expectation based on the flawless character of God. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that we can have “confidence that what we hope