Most of the time, I associate this Psalm with funerals. I don’t like to read this Psalm because it brings to mind sadness and pain. And yet, this Psalm is all about peace.
Crossroads: Awestruck
March 20, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Have you ever been awestruck by something? Perhaps a sight that took your breath away? For me, those times come most often when I am standing on top of a mountain, gazing out into the distance at the creation God has formed. Depending on the season, creation is either lush and green, or alive with color, or waiting in the darkness to spring back to life.
Crossroads: Guilty
March 6, 2023 by Leave a Comment
When I was in the first grade, I couldn’t seem to keep my mouth shut. I wanted to tell everyone everything all of the time. So being asked to be quiet wasn’t easy for me. One day we had a fire drill at school and our teacher instructed us to walk quietly outside. Honestly, I tried.
Justice, Kindness, Humility
March 1, 2023 by Leave a Comment
One morning in my eighth grade social studies class, the teacher said, “The world is one-third Christian, twenty percent Muslim, and thirteen percent Hindu.” We thought that was the goofiest thing we had ever heard. Where I grew up in Mississippi, there were four religions—Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and heathen.
Life on the Ark
February 28, 2023 by Leave a Comment
We can only imagine how messy and confusing the ark must have been. There were people there—Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives. There were animals there—two of every kind. And there was food there—every kind of food eaten in that day.
Crossroads: Jesus Is Transformed
February 20, 2023 by Leave a Comment
I became a Christian when I was seven years old. For as long as I can remember, church has been an important part of my life. I loved going to church as a kid and I loved Jesus (and I still do!).
Crossroads: Anger and Words
February 13, 2023 by Leave a Comment
“Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.” How many times did we say this to someone growing up? How many times have you heard it before? When I said this as a kid, it was because someone had said something hurtful and mean to me, and I said it to cover up the fact that those words did hurt.
Grateful for Mistakes
February 7, 2023 by Leave a Comment
“Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive. Find a way to be thankful for your troubles, and they can become your blessings.” (author unknown)
Crossroads: This Little Light of Mine
February 6, 2023 by Leave a Comment
When we accept Jesus, we become a light for God. Our lives change because of Jesus. When we listen to God, we are kinder to others and we show them how much God loves them. In this way, we are a light. It’s kind of like we’re all walking around with candles.
Crossroads: What Does God Want from Us?
January 30, 2023 by Leave a Comment
I like to know exactly what is expected of me. If someone asks me to do something, I ask questions to make sure I know what I’m supposed to do.
Crossroads: God Hears Us
January 16, 2023 by Leave a Comment
I had a tough year when I was in the sixth grade. One of the hardest parts, though, was not having any close friends at school. I prayed and I prayed for God to help me. And God heard my prayers.
Crossroads: The Lighthouse to the Nations
January 9, 2023 by Leave a Comment
My mother loves lighthouses. She loves to collect them and she loves to visit them. So when I was growing up, every time we went to the beach, we tried to find a lighthouse.
Crossroads: Listening to God
December 26, 2022 by
Have you ever felt like God was telling you to do something? There have been times when I felt like God wanted me to call someone on the phone.
Crossroads: Love
December 19, 2022 by
In the book Love You Forever, both the mother and the son sing these words to each other at different times in their lives: “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.”
Crossroads: Joy
December 12, 2022 by
God takes the dustiness of our lives—the mistakes and the bad things that happen to us—and uses them to make diamonds. In order for coal to turn into diamonds, it must undergo a lot of pressure.
Crossroads: Peace
December 5, 2022 by
When I was a teenager, my family and I went tubing down a river. Before we got in our rafts, the guide warned us to watch for bears. I knew that bears were dangerous and didn’t want to get close to one.
Crossroads: Hope
November 28, 2022 by
When I was a kid, I loved reading about heaven. My mom would read the part in Revelation 21 that talked about heaven. I loved hearing about the pure gold of the New Jerusalem and the gems.
Crossroads: Count Your Blessings
November 28, 2022 by
This is the time of year when we stuff our faces with turkey, dumplings (my grandmother makes the best!), mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, and a lot more dessert than we need.
Crossroads: Music
November 21, 2022 by
The election is this week, and for the past several months, life has felt out of control…. And in the midst of all of this name calling, mudslinging, and other awfulness, the world is at war.
Invitations to Partake
November 16, 2022 by
Some 25 years ago I sat with a two-person video crew and a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionary on the dirt floor of a simple, one-room house in a small village in the mountains of Albania.
Crossroads: Stand Strong
November 14, 2022 by
Sometimes bad things happen in our lives. A loved one dies. Someone gets really sick. You have to move and leave your friends behind. Parents sometimes divorce.
Crossroads: Remembering the Saints
November 7, 2022 by
On All Saints’ Day, we remember the important people in our faith. We remember people like Abraham and Moses. We remember David. We remember Peter and the disciples. We remember Paul.
Crossroads: You’re Not Perfect
October 31, 2022 by
As a first grader, I was a pretty big talker. I loved to talk to everyone about everything. And one day we had a fire drill at school. You were not supposed to talk during the fire drill, but I did.
Crossroads: The Lord Watches Over You
October 24, 2022 by
It’s almost Halloween, and this time of year tends to be a bit scarier than normal. People decorate their houses to look scarier, scary movies come on TV, and some people wear scary costumes on Halloween.
Meditations on Luke: Forcing Our Way In
October 19, 2022 by
It would be hard to count the gallons of ink that have been spilled over the years trying to interpret verse 16. For one thing, the wording in the original Greek is terse and difficult to translate into an English equivalent. Beyond that, the phrase deals in imagery that is awkward and feels out of place.
Crossroads: Easy vs. Difficult
October 17, 2022 by
There have been many times that I have put off doing something because I either thought it was going to take a while or I thought it would be hard to do. For example, I tend to put off washing pots and pans after I cook because I think it’s going to take forever.
Crossroads: I Know Whom I Have Believed
October 10, 2022 by
When we ask Jesus to be our friend forever, when we tell God that we know that Jesus died for us and that we want to follow God, we are committing our lives to God. We are saying that God knows better than we do and that we will listen to God and follow what God tells us to do. We will act like Christ by following God.
Crossroads: The Lord is Faithful
October 3, 2022 by
When I was a kid, my stepdad promised he would take us to Europe. Years went by and eventually he and my mom got a divorce. And in that whole time, he never took us to Europe. He didn’t keep his promise. He meant well when he promised to take us, but he couldn’t make it happen.
Crossroads: Pray for Everyone
September 26, 2022 by
When I was a kid, I wanted to pray for everyone. Every night as we said prayers at bedtime, I always added “God bless the whole world.” Every time we had prayer request time at GAs, one of my requests was for “the whole world.” Looking back, I realize that it may have been a little silly.
Crossroads: Our Wisdom vs. God’s Wisdom
September 19, 2022 by
There are many instances in my childhood where logic got me into trouble. It usually began with me saying “I told you so” and you can guess that it didn’t end well.
Crossroads: God Makes Beautiful Things
September 12, 2022 by
I’m very clumsy. And sometimes I break things. There have been times when I have broken dishes as I washed them. Usually, when I break something, I have to throw it away.
Crossroads: Entertaining Strangers
September 5, 2022 by
Have you ever helped someone you didn’t know? Or has someone come into your life at just the right time and it felt like they were sent from God? Pick one of these times to talk about with your family.
Crossroads: How Can We Find Joy in the Lord?
August 29, 2022 by
There are days when I feel close to God and days when I don’t. There are days when I absolutely know that I am following God and doing what God wants me to do, and there are days when I’m a bit unsure.
Crossroads: By Faith, pt 2
August 22, 2022 by
Tell your family’s story of faith. If your ancestors were immigrants, your family faith story may begin with something like “by faith my great-great-great grandparents left the home and land they knew and came to America in search of a better life.”
Crossroads: By Faith, pt 1
August 15, 2022 by
As Christians, we believe in what we cannot see. We cannot see God, but we know He is there. But believing in God and becoming a Christian makes a take a leap of faith; because we cannot see God but we believe anyway. We have faith in a lot of things.
Crossroads: Greed
August 8, 2022 by
As an only child for seven years, there have been times in my life when I wasn’t great at sharing. Even now, I want to make sure someone is going to take really good care of my stuff before I let them borrow anything.
“My Soul Clings to the Dust”
August 2, 2022 by
Have you ever wondered what dust actually is? Magnify it 22 million times, and you’ll find a terrifying landscape: great ropes of hair, menacing dust mites, bits of dead insects, clothing fibers, pollen grains, and sloughed off skin cells.
Crossroads: Prayer
August 1, 2022 by
When I was ten, my father asked me where I wanted to go on vacation for my 13th birthday. Turning 13 was a big deal, and so I got to pick our vacation spot. So I thought of the craziest place I could think of, sure that we wouldn’t get to go.
All the Love We Can
July 26, 2022 by
As we near the end of July, some radio stations are getting their Christmas playlists ready to hit the airwaves. They seem to start playing these earlier every year.
Crossroads: Being Busy
July 25, 2022 by
I like to be busy. If I’m watching TV or even a movie, I want to also being doing something else so that I don’t feel like I’m wasting time. So when I watch a movie or TV show at home, I also find myself looking at Facebook, my email, or even playing an online game like Candy Crush.
Earthly Accomplishments
July 19, 2022 by
Chances are I have fewer years ahead of me than behind me. As I approach a significant birthday, I find myself reflecting on my life and asking myself whether or not I’ve lived it well.
Crossroads: The Good Samaritan
July 18, 2022 by
As a young teenager, I went with my youth group to a soup kitchen one Saturday morning to feed the homeless. Several of my friends were going, and I wanted to have fun with my friends.
Crossroads: Sing Praises to God
July 11, 2022 by
God has answered many of my prayers over the years. Some of God’s answers have been yes, some no, and some that it wasn’t the time and I needed to wait. But I know that God always hears my prayers.
Crossroads: We Are Free
June 27, 2022 by
When I think of Jesus, I think of freedom. I think of the freedom grace gives us, the freedom to be ourselves, the freedom to be human, the freedom to mess up sometimes (because we are human).
Crossroads: Don’t Give Up!
June 20, 2022 by
When we were kids, my sister hated school. She didn’t want to do her homework or study, so there were many times when she didn’t understand the material. When she was in middle school, though, she had an especially hard time with math.
With All Your Heart
June 15, 2022 by
Good counselors ask good questions. The counselor who helped me work through my season of depression once asked me a question that revealed a source of my pain and a path I needed to take toward healing. She asked, “Who knows your whole story?”
Crossroads: Understanding Each Other
June 13, 2022 by
I’ve always loved the French language, and when I got into French classes in high school, I had the opportunity to travel to Paris. I was so excited!
Crossroads: Jesus Is in Charge
June 6, 2022 by
As a teenager, I loved volunteering for Vacation Bible School. It felt like a promotion to be able to help. Suddenly, I was in charge (sort of). Instead of listening to what I was supposed to do, I was the one giving direction.