Betty Whitaker Jackson

With all the hustle, the parties, the shopping, the “I’ve got to get this done!” flurry, let us look at the ends of each of the lines of this hymn, written by William Dix in 1860. The manger story, yes, but our response to it is the real story. Are we further along in our Christ walk than we were last year? Are we where we want to be next year?  As we celebrated our church’s renewal service the other…..

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Today is a day of fasting and prayer for our congregation of Christ’s church. I am reminded of the Advent hymn, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.”  It reads: Let all mortal flesh keep silence and with fear and trembling stand; Ponder nothing earthlyminded, For with blessing in His hand, Christ our God to earth descendeth, Our full homage to demand. King of Kings, yet born of Mary As of old on earth He stood, Lord of Lord, in human…..

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I’m struggling with a passage from John 3 right now. I guess I have struggled with it for a while, maybe forever, because of my sin nature. Intellectually, I understand it, but my proud hard rebels, and now that my writing is becoming important to me as never before, I am really having a hard time with it. Here is John 3:30-31: “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. He has come from above…..

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Once again, I am blessed by the music lyrics of some of the contemporary music we’re learning. While I miss the traditional hymns sung in parts corporately in worship, I can use them in my personal devotions and do. But Salvation Song by Stuart Townend and Andrew Small is just touching my heart as I approach the season of Advent. I can almost hear it sung by a monastery choir in Gregorian Chant style, can’t you? If you haven’t heard…..

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Don’t you love it when two things converge, and don’t you wonder if God is behind the convergence. I do and I am sure of it.

In my first book, I showed many “chance” occurrences were not that at all. They were planned by God’s Almighty hand for His good purposes. I called them Godincidences.

Some days, the two devotional guides I use show me God’s interest in what my life is like right now, and He offers advice I…..

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Waiting is hard for me. I think I’m a fairly patient person, but I find it difficult to wait for things. I tend to have one of two reactions to the practice of waiting. My insecure self, the one which has always had an inferiority complex of feeling that I just am not good enough, therefore, something negative will be the result, meets waiting with dread. This is the one where I’m waiting for an audition or performance and I’m…..

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It seems to me we learn to cope with circumstances through facing those circumstances. That being said, our attitude of gratitude occurs when we successfully overcome circumstances and are thankful for the experience because it has: #1 taught us something, #2 resulted in something unexpected, therefore exciting to us, or #3 surprised us by its outcome.

Those of us who believe in the sovereignty of God know that nothing is just happenstance. If we live in the sure knowledge that…..

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While praying with our small groups yesterday, with the women in the morning and our Covenant group in the afternoon, I was once more reminded of the miraculous mystery of how the Sovereign God of the universe still knows my name, hears our supplications for others, and is attentive to our every call on Him when we pray together. He promised; He fulfills; He listens; He answers.

In my devotions this morning, two things seem to come to mind that…..

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