Impacted By Grace

Psalm 28:6-7 “Praise the Lord! For The Lord heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield. I trust God with all my heart. The Lord helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out into songs of thanksgiving.”  The Lord heard my cry for mercy… I can tell you there have been times in my life where things were going so badly I wasn’t sure that if I cried out, God could hear me. But God always hears us, and isn’t that comforting? No matter what we have done, how far we feel from God, or how quietly we may call for God, our voice is always heard. Praise the Lord for that! The Lord is my strength and my shield… That means that God gives us the power we need to fight whatever battles we may face. But also, when we can’t fight, God is our shield - our protector, our guardian. When we believe this, our hearts will be filled with joy! Have you ever been so filled with the spirit of the Lord that you just had to praise God? Maybe in song like the Psa...

When I was in high school everyone played this iPhone game Temple Run. You played as this Indian Jones-type guy running out of a temple away from these giant gorillas with an artifact you just took from the temple. The point of the game was to run away from the gorillas by successfully navigating the path ahead of you. You had to quickly decide to turn left or right, jump over logs, slide under burning arches, and not fall off the edge at a turn. The difficult part of the game was that you could only see ahead of you so far because of fog, and if you died you had to start completely over.  With no end in sight and no next level to achieve, we all found ourselves addicted to a game we could score high in, but never win.  Our obsession with the game faded and we all found newer ones to play. But out of all the iPhone games I wasted my time with, I never imagined was that Temple Run could prepare me for when life feels uncertain.  Life is so crazy r...

“It means no worries For the rest of your days It's our problem-free philosophy Hakuna Matata!” – The Lion King With all this self-isolation business my husband and I have been watching a lot more movies than we normally do. And we love movies so that’s saying a lot! Hey it’s 2:00 and I’m finished with work, should we watch a movie? It’s 11:00pm, but is that too late to start a movie? Just woke up…can we watch a movie?  I’ve always found something comforting in watching movies. For two hours you can shut out the world and laugh, cry, sing, or solve a mystery. And now, more than ever, I find myself wanting to shut out the outside world as much as I can. Everything feels negative recently, don’t you think? You can’t even check Facebook without things getting overwhelming.  And what do we do when things get overwhelming? Turn to Disney! Or…is that just me?  Those animated Disney movies are just the best! And what Disney movie is com...

Why do bad things happen to good people? It ’s a question we ask a lot… maybe now more than ever. Have you ever wondered why bad things happen to good people? Or have you wondered why good things happen to bad people? I know you have, because this is a question people have always been asking. Think of stories like The Great Gatsby, where Daisy ’s husband Tom is this terrible guy who good things always happen to. He has a mistress in the city and he still ends up with Daisy in the end. Or what about shows like Friends, and the time when Ross and Rachel were on a break and, depending on whose side you’re on, Ross cheats on Rachel with the girl at the copy store. And every time I watch it I think, “Rachel is such a good person why would he do that to her?”  We are always asking why good things happen to bad people or why bad things happen to good people.  There ’s a group of people who come to mind that thought this exact same thing, the Israelites. We hear about the I...

“Occasionally I'll hit somebody with my car. So sue me... ” - Michael Scott , The Office, U.S. Season 4, Episode 1 “Fun Run”  If you don’t know, The Office (US) is the best show ever made in the history of television and the world. Is this an overstatement? Maybe… but I really don’t think so!  I love The Office. It is my go-to TV show. Had a bad day? Watch The Office. Need a good laugh? Watch The Office. Want some background noise? Watch The Office. Need some life advice? Watch The Office. Let me set up this scene where we get this hilarious quote. Michael Scott is the Regional Manager of a paper company called Dunder Mifflin. Michael Scott is that boss that tries to be cool, funny, and be everyone’s friend, but usually cannot accomplish these goals. While he is a great salesman, no one is quite sure how he became manager and he often spends his day distracting others. It makes for a great show! In this particular episode we see Michael hit one of his employ...

On Sunday we lit the third candle of Advent - also known as the joy candle. If you aren’t familiar with the Advent candles, there are five candles, four in a circle with one in the middle. Each Sunday leading up to Christmas and on Christmas Eve one is lit, a Scripture is read, and a prayer is offered. Some churches ask different people to read and light the candles each week. As you get closer to Christmas Eve, more candles are lit until there is one left in the very middle, which represents Jesus.  There are three purple candles, one pink candle, and one white candle. The pink candle is the joy candle, and I always get a little extra excited when we light that candle. For one, it is pink and different from all the others so it stands out a little more. But mainly it is because of what it represents and the Scripture that goes along with it.  As the joy candle is lit, usually Luke 1:46-55 is read. This section of Scripture is often called “The Magnificat,” and i...

For some reason I feel like the debate on when to decorate for Christmas has been bigger and louder this year than ever before. It has been all over Facebook, I heard a debate about it on the radio, and it was even talked about on the news! People seem very opinionated about whether or not you decorate for Christmas on November 1 or after Thanksgiving. The fear of decorating too early is that either Thanksgiving will get forgotten or that people will get tired of Christmas before December even starts. Those that want to decorate early say they have waited as long as they can and they love Christmas so much that they want a little more of it. My thought is: Why not start early? And here is why: Christmas is the one time of the year where I feel like Christians get a free pass to be a little extra outspoken about being a Christian. Everywhere you look, Christ is being celebrated even if it is unintentional. You can say Christmas has become too commercialize and Christ ...

With only a few days into October I’m sure you’ve seen some quote like this shared by a friend or follower on social media. You know, one of those basic girls that shares this quote while she drinks her pumpkin spice latté, wearing furry boots and flannel. While I may only be doing one of those things now, and will most likely use this quote as an Instagram caption in the days to come, I think the quote above reminds us about something important as Christians.  At Generations of Grace on Wednesday nights our different small groups have been studying the Overcomer Bible study that goes along with the Overcomer movie. One Wednesday night a few weeks ago, in the women’s class we began discussing what our lives were like before and after encountering Christ. And everyone’s “after story” included some kind of change.  That’s what happens when Christ becomes a part of your life. You change how you see the world, how you think, how you act, and what you say because y...