Learned Along the Way

Today's Jesus Calling reminded me of one of the first passages I memorized in college, John 15:4-7 The devotional shared that God alone prepares us for the day, and the future. I have been really thinking about God's sovereignty the past two weeks. God sovereign over nature and natural disasters. God sovereign over our enemies and the circumstances of others' choices around us. God sovereign over our culture. God sovereign over our decisions and free will, if we submit both of them to Him in our times of temptation and decision-making. God sovereign over our natural bodies and inclination to sins, in a debate over dealing with the inclination towards sin. God sovereign over me, as it is a DAILY conversation and surrendering things to Him, that don't grow me or satisfy me in relationship to Him. Today, the devotional made me reflect that God has been sovereign over my past, my memories, and my walk along. As much as I wanted Him to give a huge revelation of what I was...

I Want to Live Again... Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" is one of my favorite movies. As anyone will tell you, it gives me tears every year I watch it. My grandpa, Leland Crandall, introduced me to the film one Christmas. He told me he watched it at least once every year. I remember being in junior high, and wondering, "Why would Grandpa watch the same movie every year?" I got to thinking, "Well, we all do it with a Frosty, or Charlie Brown, or Rudolph, so..." I remember watching it as a young teen, for the first time. To give some context, I was not a Christian,   I went to church because my mom and dad went. I didn't even know if I really believed in God. I mean, I said prayers at night and tried to read the big King James, red-lettered family Bible we kept in the living room, but didn't really get it. My friends, Stephanie and Kathy, invited me regularly to youth group, but I never felt like I fit in there either. I didn...

Micah Chapter 7 Wait for the God of Salvation 7  Woe is me! For I have become u as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no v first-ripe fig that my soul desires. 2  w The godly has perished from the earth, and x there is no one upright among mankind; y they all lie in wait for blood, and z each hunts the other with a net. 3  a Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; b the prince and c the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. 4  The best of them is d like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of e your watchmen, of your punishment, has come; f now their confusion is at hand. 5  g Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard h the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; 1...

MARK 16:10 "She went and told those who had been with Him and who were mourning and weeping." Saturday - the day after the Crucifixion of Jesus       I always feel, well, different telling people what I do for a living. It's different and sometimes awkward on several levels. First, as a man, we are often asked as one of the first questions to establish our identity or standing in a group or situation; "What do you do for a living?" Secondly, it's often an awkward or uncomfortable moment before I hear a response to what I have just told them. Sometimes, the response is, "Oh...I could never do something like that. You have to be the right, special, different kind of person to do that job." Maybe, it's a chuckle and silence, and then, "Better you than me. I couldn't do that." After a brief talk of how I got into my line of work, they might tell me "Thank you, for what you do. I know it must be a hard or difficult j...