Blogs
Treasure These Things in Your Heart
Happy New Year! I know Christmas was last week already, but stay with me for a second. This Christmas, I was struck by the fact that there was so much hubbub and noise around the time Jesus was born. First, an angel appears to a priest, a young virgin, and a carpenter by dreams to…
Read MoreHope – What should we hope for in the ongoing aftermath of 2020?
Hope is “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain things to happen.” This time last year, we all had such hope for 2020 only to have those expectations and desires dashed by the global pandemic. 2020 also confronted us with many challenges that have rightfully caused us to rethink our daily assumptions, preconceived…
Read MoreChristmas Unusual – Francine Rivers
Christmas “as usual” has always been to gather our adult children’s families to us for Christmas Eve. Everyone arrives early in the afternoon. To keep the focus on God’s gift to us, Jesus, we ended the gift exchange. Instead, everyone brings something for all to share, be it a board game, puzzle, tasty treats, or…
Read MoreWhen You Wonder: Where’s God? – Margaret Feinberg
When You Wonder: Where’s God? By Margaret Feinberg For a moment, imagine yourself a tweenaged girl. Your pulse races. Pupils dilate. Skin turns clammy and sweaty. You gasp to catch your breath. Every hair stands on prickly end. A mighty angel glows before you. He says you’re favored, and tells you the Lord is with…
Read MoreFollowing in the Way of Peace – Holly Fortier
Following in the Way of Peace Holly Fortier This has been quite the year… The COVID-19 pandemic, shut down and stay at home orders, loss of jobs and businesses, work and school from home, isolation, fragile mental health issues, racial tension and uprising… and many other devastating events. I am sure you, dear reader, have…
Read MoreHope Has a Name, and His Name is Jesus – Christina Thé
Hope has a name, and his name is Jesus. I was once hopeless – in despair. I thought I was living, but I was merely surviving. Even after I asked Jesus into my heart and proclaimed him as my Lord and Saviour, I would have bouts of cyclical darkness and severe depression. In those dark…
Read MoreCheerios and Choosing Hope – Tiffany Espensen
Cheerios and Choosing Hope Tiffany Espensen When I was a little girl, my mother always knew when I was about to cause a mess. I would audibly shout “uh-oh” before I chucked my cheerios at the wall. 2020 was also messy. In the beginning, everything was going smoothly, and then all of a sudden, that…
Read MoreHe Calls Me Beloved – Jonathan Puddle
The Creation story in Genesis tells us that God not only made us in his image but actually intended us to be like him. How’s that working out for? If you’re anything like me, life’s been a bumpy ride and I haven’t always dealt with it very well. For years I’ve felt like I was…
Read MoreWhen Your Whole World Changes – Alyssa Esparaz
Two and a half years ago, my life completely changed. Yet from the outside looking in, my life looked exactly the same. I guess I should back up a bit. This story starts with a dream that God placed in my heart while I was in high school. As God stirred in me a passion…
Read MoreGod’s Perfect Way and Plan – Camille Aguila
I was born into an immigrant Asian family story— a narrative rich in stereotypes based on social class, how we should look, what to study, who to marry and by what age. There’s this expectation that we need to be submissive/passive/quietly agreeable all the time… and not speak or stand up for ourselves. The social pressure to conform was and still is enormous.
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