When JESUS INVITES you TO COME, HE INVITES you TO COME. And why? Because HE has a GIFT that only HE can GIVE. The GIFT OF REST. A REST for your mind, body, and heart. What is this REST? REST~ "to take a break from one’s activities in order to be refreshed" (logos) Hmm. To TAKE A BREAK from one's activities. Is BEING ANXIOUS one of your activities? TAKE A REST~ "Cast all your anxiety on HIM, because HE cares for you" (I Peter 1:7). Is BEING BITTER one of your activities? TAKE

Why CHRISTMAS IN JULY? Why not, because JESUS is HERE beyond CHRISTAS DAY! The Angels have spoken. The TRUTH was told. The BABY was born. Now what? What happens after THE PROMISE comes alive? What do you do with THE BABY? You HOLD HIM~ "...let us hold fast our confession [of faith and cling tenaciously to our absolute trust in HIM as SAVIOR] (Hebrews 4:14). You TALK to HIM~ "Therefore HE is able also to save forever (completely, perfectly, for eternity) those who come to GOD

You know "IT" is there. You can almost feel "IT" trying to take over your whole being. Yet you hold back, wondering if "IT" is really for you. What is "IT"? PEACE. HIS PERFECT PEACE. You long for it. Yet your circumstances are shouting anything but PEACE. You wonder how you could ever, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds" (James 1:2) How is that possible? Because what you SEE and what you are EXPERIENCING doesn't feel JOYFUL

GOD never STOPS being GOD, even if you feel like your LIFE is at a STANDSTILL. You WAIT. You TRUST. You BELIEVE. BUT all your hear is TICK. TICK. TICK. Tears stream down my face now, as I remember so many moments when I was so tired of THE WAIT, but now I am experiencing BLESSINGS because of all that GOD has done in THE WAIT. Oh how GOD does HIS best work in THE WAIT, when you are WAITING WITH GOD. Because GOD never tires of THE WAIT. TICK. TICK. TICK. As we continue our jo

I never felt like I truly BELONGED. My feet were planted on the ground, yet it often felt like I was standing on foreign soil. Maybe it was because our family lived in so many different places. Or maybe... GOD was teaching me something much deeper. Perhaps HE never intended this world to satisfy my longing to BELONG, because HE was always drawing me to BELONG to HIM. I love the words of Dr. Seuss: "Why are you trying to fit in when you were born to stand out?" The moment I BE

I BELIEVE this. You BELIEVE that. And if we both try to convince one another to BELIEVE what we BELIEVE, we could spend days going back and forth. So why do you BELIEVE what you BELIEVE? And perhaps an even greater question is this~ Do you live what you BELIEVE, so that others can see your FAITH without you ever saying a word? WHO DO YOU BELIEVE? I BELIEVE GOD'S WORD. Not because I won an argument. Not because someone convinced me. But because I have experienced the GOD of t

I remember a day when JOY became a foreigner. Ironically, I had just written a devotional about the JOY of the LORD. I was overflowing with JOY, as the words of Psalm 30:11 became my song, "YOU have turned my mourning into dancing;YOU have taken off my sackclothand clothed me with JOY". I had no idea that before the sun would rise, life would change. It felt as though a freight train had come rushing through my house. One moment there was JOY. The next moment there was MOURNI

HE told me once. HE told me twice. And HE won't stop telling me~ "I want ALL of you". BUT I respond with a "BUT GOD, what do you mean by my ALL? "JESUS replied: ’Love the LORD your GOD with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your mind'"(Matthew22:37). Oh how I question the word ALL as GOD is asking me to put HIM first, second, third.... JESUS wants my ALL~ "constituting the full quantity or extent; complete" (logos). Oh how I live on the fence when I crave LO

The QUIETNESS of the morning wakes me up. THE STILLNESS is so beautifully pure, that there is no room for interruption. Because the space and place is reserved for JESUS. Oh HE BIRTHS NEW LIFE into the dead spaces and places, the holes in our hearts that were created by the BROKENNESS OF LIFE. Whether it is a hole that you created, or if it is a hole created by another, or a hole that circumstances have created. The HOLE is an INVITATION for THE QUIETNESS, THE STILLNESS , of

CHRISTmas in JULY sounds so strange to me, because CHRISTmas is year long because JESUS is year long. JESUS doesn't get packed up in a box, to be opened for the next CHRISTmas season. Yet doesn't HE get buried amongst the rubble of the hardships, the hurts, and the pains of the world. Nothing can BURY JESUS, because HE ROSE. Oh even the GRINCH couldn't STEAL CHRISTmas from the HEARTS of every Who down in Who-ville, even though that was his mission And oh how he thought succee