Created or Creator?

Vacation Bible School is coming…very soon. So much to prepare, so much prayer. So many kids, families, hearts. So many snacks, volunteers, t-shirts. God is good!

The motto for this year’s VBS, Spark Studios is: Created! Designed! Empowered! It comes from the theme verse:

For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10 HCSB

All Alone? [repost]

Here I sit. Alone in my office. Diffusing On Guard essential oil; hopefully killing germs. Listening to my water fountain percolating, imitating a bubbling brook. I hear voices. Faithful servants fulfilling the obligations they’ve made to God, to one another; enjoying fellowship together. As their meeting comes to an end, one by one they depart leaving one behind who finishes the final touches to the project they’ve all been working on. And now they’re working alone.

But that’s the thing. We’re never alone. Never. Alone.

Are You Amazed? [repost]

I’m amazed as I read through Isaiah 53 at the prophecy of Christ’s suffering. Everything’s there: rejection; unjust condemnation; punishment by piercing, crushing, beating, whipping; and silence. The silence is what really gets me. From the time Jesus is arrested in the garden to the final “it is finished!”, He is a man of few (but powerful) words. During all the trials, mocking, and plain noise “He did not open His mouth.” It just speaks to me of his obedience to do His Father’s will.