Category: Reflection
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Don’t Look Back
Don’t Look Back: Twenty-five years. A quarter century. Looking back, it is hard to see the woman I was—or maybe more accurately, the girl. She was so broken, so addicted, feeling unworthy and unlovable, convinced she was damaged in a way that could never be repaired. She tried to take her life twice, once at…
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When God Closes a Door
A year can change everything. I’m standing in a place today that I never planned to be a year ago—not because I ran from something, not because something went wrong, but because God closed a door I wasn’t expecting Him to close. For a long season, I was serving faithfully in a role I loved.…
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Following Jesus may cost you something. Not following Jesus may cost you everything.
Being a follower of Jesus in today’s world is not clean, polished, or easy. It’s messy. It’s costly. It’s confusing sometimes. And yet, it is the most life-giving, soul-steadying, hope-filled path I’ve ever known. I don’t stand here as someone who has it all together. I stand here as someone who has tried to do…
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Junk
Do you ever think about junk? Junk is a collection of things that have no meaning or value or are of low quality. Every home has one: the junk drawer. You know the one — where mismatched batteries, expired coupons, and keys-to-nowhere pile up “just in case.” It looks harmless on the outside… shut the…
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New Year’s Joy
As the year ends and the holidays come to a close, we find ourselves packing away the Christmas decorations and all the “material things” that bring the Christmas Spirit to life in our homes at this time of year. The beautiful music of Christmas carols and the sweet aroma of cookies baking in the oven…
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Awe & Wonder
We all know the Christmas Story, but these last couple of years, as I have read it, it got me thinking a little differently. We know the story; we read it over, and over again each Christmas, but how often does the awe and wonder of this miraculous event get lost because of its familiarity? …
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Living by Reflection
This Christmas season we pause and reflect on the birth of Jesus, the Savior of the world, born a baby, yet a King. He came from humble means, born on a silent night in the city of Bethlehem, traveling with His mother and father on a donkey to a cold, dark cave of sorts, wrapped…
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The Spirit of God Within Us
As we are approaching Christmas Day, our thoughts and our intentions reflect upon the manger and the birth of Christ, and how beautiful it was. During this season we watch the Christmas movies, we look at manger scenes and Christmas lights around our community, and we ponder the miraculous virgin birth of our Lord and…
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Love is an Action, Not a Feeling
Love Your Enemies The scripture tells us in Matthew 5:44 and Luke 6:27-28 that we are to “Love our enemies!” But how can we have feelings for those who have purposely hurt us whether physically, mentally, or emotionally? When we think of loving someone, we long to be around them. We think about them with…
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Peace & Gratitude in Chaos
The month of November is typically a time when we specifically focus our attention on gratitude. Afterall, it is the month when we celebrate Thanksgiving. What about when our “normal” is completely upside down? How can we practice gratitude when life is not great? Many of us think of gratitude in terms of profound life…
KINGDOM LIFE AZ 