Drawing Near...

In the Bible is an interesting statement:  “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”  (James 4:8a)  Interesting, because so much of the Bible clearly indicates that it is God who has taken the initiative to draw us to Himself.  Didn’t Jesus say, “If I be lifted up,” speaking of His death on the cross, “I will draw all men to me?”  And aren’t the Scriptures full of stories and examples of God’s pursuing love that reached out to the people of Israel in spite of their rejection and stubbornness of heart to obey Him? 

Eternal Springtime

Springtime!  What a glorious season of the year!  If I had a favorite season, this would be it.  The sudden appearance of flowering trees in brilliant profusion against a backdrop of still-grey wooded areas is an incredibly amazing and beautiful contrast.  Life, springing forth from seemingly dead branches, appears everywhere.  Within just a couple of weeks even the backdrop turns into a waving sea of green, and more flowering trees and shrubs of every color and description populate the landscape.

Micro-Choices

Sometimes, choosing a blog topic for the week takes an extra bit of reading the Scriptures, meditating on an idea or just plain stretching the grey matter to arrive at a decision.  But occasionally there are seeming pointers throughout the week that keep reminding me of a certain theme.  You may think “coincidence,” but I’ve learned over time that God has a way of bringing my attention to a subject by dropping it on me from various seemingly unrelated sources.  When that happens I know it deserves my special attention, so here’s the latest one…

Time Well Spent

The last time the four of us were together, I was in critical care and had no clue of the rollercoaster emotional ride that my three sons, as well as my beloved wife, had been going through.