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I love reading by Christmas tree light. In the faint warmth of its incandescent illumination, I feel hope. The gentle radiance enfolds me into a brief retreat during the bustle of the holiday season. The calm soothes in the midst of the distresses of our broken world, and collides with the disquiet hiding in the corners of my soul. I find my mind tranquilly wandering into history and the pastoral suburbs of shepherds living under stars, watching woolly animals breathing in, breathing out. I mull over what those men might have been thinking as they watched the calm repose taking place on the fields in front of them. How could they have known that in the provincial life they had become so accustomed to, they would be met by the miraculous? I long for an angel to appear in front of me proclai...

Here is my confession: I believed in Santa until I was eleven. I had suspicions, but as far as I could see I had a good thing going on, and asking questions might mess with the quantity of wrapped bounty strewn beneath the tree Christmas morning. Whether it was Santa or Mom, I didn’t care, because… presents. My grandma finally set me straight during the Yuletide season of sixth grade. She was probably worried about my intelligence or that I would be a bully’s easy target, so she glanced at me incredulously, delicately shook her silver-crested head, and set me straight when I started lodging my defense about why Santa was real. Growing up is hard. The loss of dreams, wonder, and innocence feels tragic. As a child I felt I had a right to believe in things that could not be explained, underst...

Jesus Christ was born into a weary world, unto a weary people. God’s last word to the Jewish people had been four hundred years prior in the book of Malachi. A vast silence had echoed in the following centuries. Israel had been ruled by Greece, Syria, and finally at the time of Jesus’ birth, the despised Romans. Chronic disunity among religious factions (Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, and Essenes) and oppressive religious laws weighed heavily on the people. Yet they clung to their hope of the promised Messiah and when “the fullness of time had come, God sent his son.” [Galatians 4:4] If Jesus had been born into a peaceful, prosperous moment in Jewish history, His light might have been missed. Rather as Isaiah 9:2 foretold: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;  Th...

Once upon a starry nightA single star shown ever brightOutshone angels hovering a fieldTelling shepherds who rightly kneeledOf the birth of the Chosen OneBorn of Mary, God’s own Son Wise men followed that singular starTraveling for days from afarWith the shepherds they came to seeThe King of kings who sets us freeLying in a lowly manger stallTo save the lost, one and all Each December I search the skyBut perhaps I should look in mid-JulySince we don’t know when He was bornWas snow on the ground or fields full of cornBut the fact of His birth is true and sureFaith in His grace will salvation secure As we gaze upon a starry nightLet us not feud, bicker, and fightMay we prove hate is defeated by loveAs we ponder the heavens aboveKnowing we are never aloneAnd mercy sits upon His throne LINDA L...

When I was 9 years old, my twin sister and I sat alone in a church service on a Sunday morning in a small Baptist church in rural Louisiana. The pastor delivered a message and when he began the altar call, I got up and timidly walked down to the front of that church. It was in that moment that I realized the weight of my sin and my desperate need of this Savior he spoke of. It was a deep realization (as deep as a 9-year-old could have) that I needed Jesus’s help to get through my life. Life had already been quite hard for me. My mother had been killed. My dad was an alcoholic who had married many times. I had endured much abuse. And there was something about this Sunday morning that was made clear by the power of the Holy Spirit that I could not do life without Jesus. Life’s weight was far...

Scripture writing plans are incredibly simple yet incredibly effective for helping us read, interpret, and absorb the Word of God. Rather than simply letting our eyes pass over a verse and perhaps miss its full meaning, writing Scripture down helps us absorb each word and think through what the passage before us is saying. Click the Download button below to access your challenge!  Photo Credit: ©SWN Join Our Telegram Group : Salvation & Prosperity  

Scripture writing plans are incredibly simple, yet incredibly effective for helping us read, interpret and absorb the Word of God. Rather than simply letting our eyes pass over a verse and perhaps miss its full meaning, writing Scripture down helps us absorb each word and really think through what the passage before us is saying. Each day in November you’ll have opportunity to write down a verse. We suggest using a journal where you can add any additional mediations or prayers that the verse brings to mind. Photo Credit: ©SWN Join Our Telegram Group : Salvation & Prosperity  

The three of us are up in the mountains, cedars and redwoods reaching toward warm October sky. The path we walk is wide enough for Mugsy, who, on her leash, finds every rustle in the shrubs an irresistible invitation to explore. We make our way to the lake, a wide expanse of deep blue and teal sparkling with ripples across its otherwise smooth surface, and walk out onto the dock, intent on getting as close as we can to the cold water without plunging in. It was a delicious four-hour drive to our friend’s cabin, talking about family and makeup and wallpaper and God. I love her dearly, the friend who loves me and moved away and still comes to visit often. Whenever we are together, people ask if we are sisters, and we love it—leaning in close, hip to hip, head to head, and smiling ear to ear....