Father, on this Thanksgiving Day 2023, we come to You and give You thanks. Our hearts have turned from the hardships of this year to the sweetness of Your presence…

I have discovered just 5 words that are able to stabilize my emotions … clear away all discouragement … and even renew my focus.

Are your days quickly passing by in a meaningless blur of busyness … restless sleep patterns … planning for the next meal … paying bills that have skyrocketed … and just merely existing from one mundane task to the next?

Have you ever been offended by someone and then overreacted emotionally? Has someone ever gotten on your very last nerve … and then you have let this incompetent person know about their thoughtless behavior with sharp words or with a cold attitude? How do you handle daily offenses?

Do you ever wish you could hit the “rewind” button on words that you have thoughtlessly spoken? Of course, you have! If you are still living and breathing … and are still interacting with people both large and small … then certainly your tongue has said things that are probably unnecessary … likely unkind … and most certainly sarcastic. Of course, it has! I have found time and time again that my tongue needs boundaries.

I am hearing from friends in Israel ... most are currently safe ... while knowing of friends and family members who have been injured or taken hostage. One of my Israeli friends said in an audio message, "We are hanging on ... things will get better ... we will overcome ... but the last 24 hours were very hard ... everyone knows of a loved one or friend who has lost someone."

God’s grace can be trusted, and his gifts are always good—even if they’re not exactly what we had in mind. When we cry out for the easy way out, God’s got bigger, better, holier things in mind.

Words. Words can rain down refreshing drops of water causing vibrant growth … and then they develop a glorious harvest where formerly there only dying dreams and yesterday’s unfulfilled hopes. Words can strengthen the mortal soul.  Words have the exciting capacity to deposit health in diseased attitudes and minds.  Words have the tenacity to stir up renewed vision in a discouraged heart that was only capable of sorrowfully looking back toward the unchanging past. Words change lives … words restore … words inspire … words revive … words celebrate!

If we look at stories like Gideon’s in the book of Judges, where God declares that he had “too many men” to win the battle, we’ll see that God’s highest value is his own glory. That means the work that matters is work that glorifies God. 

How many of you have a difficult person in your life?  Perhaps some of you have more than one difficult person you encounter daily. Maybe some of you ARE the difficult person in a relationship … have you ever thought about that?!  Difficult people are just so … so … so … well they are just so difficult!

It was a rare clear day, not a puff of a cloud in the sky, and off in the distance sat Mount Rainier. Everyone around here simply calls it The Mountain, not just because its near relative, Mount St. Helens, who lost her head a few years back and is now much harder to see. No, it’s called The Mountain because it’s the tallest and most majestic. For those who enjoy a relaxing walk and hike, the best part of Mount Rainier is an area called Paradise.

Do you know not what “September flowers” are? They are the flowers that were brilliant and young in June but now they are dismally weary and completely worn out. They are still “my” flowers – but they just look so bedraggled now.

The change of seasons is knocking at my door.  

Autumn awaits me while summer scurries silently away without even a polite good-bye.

We all encounter moments of difficulty and adversity, whether through external circumstances over which we have little control or through the consequences of our own choices. It is essential that we persevere during such times, but from where do we gather the strength to keep going?

I didn't actually know I would be attending ORU until just a week or two before I arrived. You see … I had planned to go to the safe Christian college about 45 minutes from my home ... until the phone call from the ORU Admissions office that interrupted my life and set me into my destiny. I’m not sure I have ever heard the voice of the Lord so clearly since that 8th month of the year 1973.

Many of us start life with a “To-Do-List” like graduate college, get married, have children, get a career, serve God as a missionary or a children’s ministry leader or the director of Awana. Fast-forward a few years, and the future is here. We can all look at that list of priorities, and we know how well we’ve achieved them. Any boxes checked are by the grace of God. He has provided the opportunities, the intellect, the physical stamina, and the heart to accomplish those things (Deuteronomy 8:18). Any boxes not yet checked are blank also by the grace of God. For by the grace of God, I am what I am.