Betty Whitaker Jackson

A year ago, hundreds of people were dying from COVID-19 every day, often alone, often on ventilators. We remember and mourn their loss. Perhaps we think most about our own mortality when a tragedy like a pandemic comes, or when we attend a funeral or memorial service. Psalm 139 teaches that the day of our death is determined before we are born, and that the gift of life has a expiration date. Planned obsolescence so to speak. It is time…..

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During the last year, we have faced trials from a pandemic. It has changed our world and our feelings of fragility, vulnerability, and fear. I know, and hope you do too, who guides our world, who knows the future, and who is our hope and salvation. We are never promised we will have a happy life in this world. We will face trials. How we choose to respond is key to our growth in the faith. It seems to me…..

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After Easter, Pentecost, God sent the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. We can know personally the indwelling of Christ within us to comfort, to guide, to encourage, to chasten, and to provide answers to life’s biggest questions. Emanuel means God with us. Nothing we can do can earn us this gift. Unlike other religious practices, we do not reach out to God; He reached to us to draw us personally to Him. This is a Lenten truth.

MY PSALM 324   DWELL…..

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We need to watch how we speak! Whether it’s on social media, on the phone, in conversation, or in print, our words do matter. As a writer, I need to watch tone, emotion, syntax, motivation, and truth in order to be authentic. When our faith guides our words, we are representatives of Christ and His kingdom. When we speak as professionals, in my case as an educator, I need to consider my audience and their viewpoints, prejudices, beliefs, and personal…..

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Today’s topic for Lent is Sanctification. I know and you know we will never live up to Christ’s example in our lives. We are sinners, we were sinners, and we will always sin, but Christ atoned for those sins and we can be counted as righteous because of His sacrifice for us. However, that does not mean we should ignore our sinful nature. That would be cheap grace indeed. Therefore, through prayer, reading scripture, and conscious editing of our speech…..

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God, creator of the universe and Lover of our souls, fashioned order out of chaos. Read the story of creation to see this. Then notice the plan, unveiled throughout all scripture, to defeat the chaos caused by sin into the order of heaven. By folllowing His precepts in this chaotic existence where the right seems wrong and wrong seems right is our challenge. Read and study His plan for salvation, make a pledge to follow His precepts, and earn the…..

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Deuteronomy 30:19 gives us the assurance and confidence in God’s covenany promise. May it bless your day along with My Psalm 319:

“I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listen obediently to Him, firmly embracing Him. Oh, yes. He is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

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One the greatest gifts Christianity gives is assurance–the assurance that God loves us just as we are, the assurance that He will always love us, the assurance that Jesus paid for our sins, past, present, and future, and that one day we will live to praise Him perfectly as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. No matter what the world shows us, all of which is fleeting, subject to corruption, and sure to bring us pain and disillusionment, Christ’s…..

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A little “anxiety promoter” for today. They tell me that historically, March 4th was Inauguration Day rather than January 20th, probably due to weather concerns. There is “chatter” that some might “storm” the Capitol in Washington today and cause a riot like the one that occurred January 6th.  As a cautionary step, Congress, finding any possible excuse, it seems to me, has abandoned its work today, the center of Washington is surrounded by troops, fences, and barbed wire. What is…..

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