Posts from January 2025

“Iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” — Proverbs 27:17 (NIV) In life, we often encounter moments of challenge, doubt, and darkness. It is during these times that our inner light, our hopes, dreams, and faith can become dim. The world around us might try to extinguish it, whether through negativity, disappointment, or the pressures of daily life. But God, in His wisdom, has given us people who are meant to walk alongside us, friends who can shield and protect that…

“There’s a season for everything and a time for every matter under the heavens: a time for giving birth and a time for dying…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, CEB) You might think, “Wow, that’s an encouraging passage to start with,” but there’s a reason my mind wandered to Ecclesiastes. As we begin a new year, I’ve been reflecting on a book that offers a timely perspective. In Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman, the author reminds us that the average person lives…

2 Corinthians 5:16-21 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: [a] The old has gone, the new is here!18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself…

I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. Joel 2:25   Hope, that powerful essence which helps us look beyond the bleak and difficult days we’re living with anticipation that something better is on the horizon, and gives us confidence that we will discover the beauty that we can’t see. We all need hope. It helps us persevere through difficulty.…

Hebrews 4:12 12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. It really isn’t the luck of the draw.  It just happens to be where my name appears on the list of names of pastors who write devotionals for our church.  My first devotional for 2025 and I am already having troubles writing “2025”. I don’t think I have…