Mission Faithwalk

                 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6) It has been a tough few days. Wednesday night, my “good” knee became my “bad” knee in a melodramatic incident. I handled the emergency fairly well, I think, but it’s taken several days to my knee to recover to the point that it has, which isn’t quite where I’d like it. I had downs and ups about an assigned article and my story, but I thought I was doing better. On Sunday morning, my pastor preached a great sermon about hope. Then I came home, and things slowly failed to be as productive as I wanted. It doesn’t help that I started into a process online that just can’t be simple. No great surprise, really. But by bedtime, I had spiraled down into anxiety. No great surprise, really. I prayed. I whined. I screamed in silence. And this morning I got up with my...

                 At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. (Deuteronomy 15:1) This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.   Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:6-8) How long has it been since you cancelled debts? I know we love the idea of having our debts cancelled. Buy a brand-new house and vehicle and pay on them for only 7 years. Or, better yet, buy them at 6.5 years through the cycle and only pay for 6 months! I don’t think it would work that way, but we like the idea. And, as for the forgiving debts others owe me, well, I don’t have the money to lend, so that is a non-issue. ...

                 G ive thanks to the Lord, for he is good.   His love endures forever. (Psalm 136:1, 36) Words of Affirmation Acts of Service Receiving Gifts Quality Time Physical Touch             According to Gary Chapman in his 1992 book, The Five Love Languages , these are the five ways that people communicate the love to one another. You have a “native” love language. Do you know what it is? If not, here’s the official web page for the quiz (among others): Discover Your Love Language® - The 5 Love Languages® (Official Quiz)             I’m sharing that with you because if love languages exist (and I believe they do), God invented them. He speaks each of them fluently, but I doubt He speaks to you in only one of them. There’s one you are likely to recognize best.       ...

                 This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance. (Exodus 12:14) By the time you read this, it will be the day after Black Friday. You will have lived through three of the four major holidays of the fall: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the aforementioned Black Friday. There’s only one left. Are you already exhausted? The only parallel I can think of is that we have Memorial Day in May, Flag Day in June, and Independence Day in July, but we can decorate once for all three, and we don’t tend to give presents. I’ll grant, however, that there are still people who decorate graves for or by Memorial Day, and that can create some stress. Maybe it’s just the former corporate retail employee in me. Of course, today’s verse is not about Christmas, but Christmas has become one of the festivals we feel obligated to celebrate. And ...

              Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. (Colossians 3:16)           My first thought on reading this is that Paul must have heard some of the singing of the Colossians. Or maybe Paul had heard his own singing. “Yes, sing in your heart .” Or maybe he knew some of the Colossians were embarrassed about their singing even if it wasn’t as bad as they thought. The problem with that is that he’d just gotten done saying “teach and admonish one another…through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.           A better explanation is that there would likely be places where singing with their mouths could get them killed or (at the very least) be inappropriate. If singing with their mouths was...

                   Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, (Hebrews 12:28)           We’ve made it to the big day , the day on which we should be supremely thankful. And I’ll get back to the gratitude in a moment. First, the author of Hebrews tells us one reason we should be thankful: we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Can you imagine? I don’t think I can remember a time, at least as an adult, when my kingdom or the “kingdoms” of my hometown, my county, my state, my nation, or the kingdom of man were unshakable. Even looking at God’s Kingdom, we can see what we think are symptoms of shakiness. Lucifer and his followers rebelled. Man sinned. Jesus had to die. There’s are wars and rumors of wars, and there are prophecies of an upcoming war. We have been told that He will win...