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A former pastor friend of mine once wrote a sermon likening the invasive species buckthorn to sin.  Once in an area, invasive species like buckthorn tend to crowd out native plants and take over, choking the life and viability out of other plants and trees. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, buckthorn: “threatens the future of forests, wetlands, prairies, and other natural habitats. out-competes native plants for nutrients, light, and moisture. degrades wildlife habitat. contributes to erosion by…

I think many of us experience anxiety, worry and fear from time to time. Especially in this upcoming election season. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Philippians 4: 6-8. I’ve loved the verse so much that it’s been on my fridge for years: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts…

Recently, my husband and I camped on the North Shore with some ATN friends.  Our Sunday church service was held on the beach in view of the sparkling blue water and the rugged shoreline.  As we spent time in silence listening for God, the sound of the waves rhythmically beating against the rocky beach caught my attention.  One after another the waves rolled in………wave upon wave upon wave…………. The word “blessing” came into my mind.  Like the waves, God’s blessings…

We lived with our grandparents when I was growing up, and my grandmother was a very frugal woman. Christmas gifts from her were always practical and not what my sister and I wanted when we were children. But so, we didn’t show disappointment and hurt her feelings when opening them  on Christmas morning, we devised a sneaky way of loosening the tiny bit of tape at one end of the package and peeking in to see if the box was…

Going back to when I got filled with the Holy Spirit in 1980, the Lord gave me a verse – which I’ve taken as my life verse. It is a familiar one, Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for good and not for evil to give you a future and a hope.“  I took that scripture very seriously and spent a day a week fasting, asking God what those plans were. I also took…

That’s the title of a book by Loren Cunningham, and it describes my life for the last 12 years.  It has been a journey of learning to trust God for finances.  I can only skim the surface in the next few minutes, so I’ll give you three vignettes that paint a picture of what it’s been like. At the end of 2008, my employer laid me off.  It was the fifth time I’d been laid off, so I had seen…

The affirmation of our heavenly Father is powerful because he is the Author of Life.  All that we are derives from our Maker. His words, spoken to us, continue the formative process of who we are as his creatures. We each are a small part of God’s story, written into it at a particular point in time.  Psalm 139 is David’s reflection on the context of his own life, that he was known before birth, created by God, “knit together…

Thirteen years ago, in May of 2008, I opened a new journal, took a pen and wrote, Genesis 1:1-8. Despite identifying myself as a person of faith, I had not been regularly reading the Word for over 25 years. I became a Christian when I was four, grew up involved in an evangelical church, counselled two entire summers at a faith-based camp, and completed several inspiring Bible classes in college. Following college, I married a wonderful Christian man, worked in…

So, when did this “listening to God” thing start for me, anyway?  It was in my late teens and early twenties that I began to follow God in earnest.  I couldn’t get enough of His word.  My Dad had passed away when I was young, so when I read, “I have called you by name, you are mine”, it touched me deeply.  And so began my love relationship with Jesus. I started to “take God at His word” and one…

Language matters.  Words matter.  They can convey both the simplest and most complex of notions.  Through words we can have understanding or misunderstanding of others.  They can be wielded as a tool or a torture.  The concept of words has been on my mind a lot lately.   I awoke the day of the time change listening to the radio and a program that was on that reinforced the way words can shape outcomes.  Just the night before, a treasured friend…