What is your favorite season of the year? Mine is spring, for several odd reasons…

The marks of death that God chose never to erase

[As previously seen in iBelieve] Let’s play a little game. It’s called Two Truths and a Lie. You know, the one where someone says three things about themselves and then people have to guess which one isn’t true. Here goes:

Food is the foundation of your health, for better or for worse. Your body breaks down the foods you eat each day into tiny molecules that make your body function, grow, repair, and heal itself.

[As originally seen in the Christian Post] For much of my life, I have spoken to, and heard from, the Lord. This communication is called “prayer”, of course, but over the years it’s felt far more comfortable than the formality that word contrives in my mind. At its height, it has felt like breathing, as if I only needed to think of God and there He was, talking with me as one might with a friend.

[Also seen in Crosswalk] Often, we think of stewardship in terms of finances or time, but the concept of stewardship extends beyond our bank accounts and calendars. If we view our entire lives – past included – as a gift from God, it changes the way we view stewardship.

Though the word “bully” doesn’t appear in the Bible, the idea of treating others in a brutish and insolent manner does. The Bible is full of examples of bullying: Saul’s persecution of David in I Samuel, Ahab’s and Jezebel’s threatening of Elijah in the Book of Kings, Saul (also called Paul) and his relentless bullying and persecution of Christians, and, finally, Jesus himself—being bullied, scorned, and persecuted by the religious leaders of the day.

From childhood, most of us are taught to express gratitude in response to a kindness. That’s an act of politeness. But when we can express kindness in response to gratitude – that’s an act that creates ripple effects that extend beyond ourselves.