Growing in Grace

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. -Matthew 5:8 When I was a boy, the thought of going to heaven sounded boring. As a young lad, I thought that there is so much more here that I wanted to experience. Places to go. Thrills to embrace. The thought of sitting around for all eternity strumming a harp didn't appeal to me. I had a very immature perspective of heaven back then. But in the last few years I've closed some of my letters and emails in a unique way: God is good. Life is a challenge. Heaven looks better and better all the time -Dennis As I've read the Scriptures, I've realized that heaven looks much better than anything the world offers. I think life is one long process of God weaning us from this world and its pleasures and showing us that what we yearn for isn't here. Do you long for heaven? On those days when you desire heaven the most, is it because you're exhausted, so you long for heaven's rest? Is it because you

Harkins Theater is offering two free movies for the next week for their 80th anniversary. I took the kids to see Epic for the 11:30 show. (It was great to be just about the only one's in the theater!) We have seen this movie before. Dennis took Ellie to see it on a "date". Then we checked it out from the library and watched it at home. There are some great lessons in this movie and I love the story of the gained understanding between father and daughter. I was tearing up in a couple of parts! As we were leaving the theater today, we began discussing some of these little nuggets of truth. I pointed out that the leaf men's saying about how "they were many leaves but all connected" reminded me of Romans 12:4-6a which says, "for just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, accordi

The cheerful heart has a continual feast . - Proverbs 15:15 A few years ago, I asked my three kids what things they most enjoyed doing together as a family. I anticipated they'd say amusement parks, restaurants, and trips. I wasn't prepared for their answers. . . My kids prefer UNO to Chuck E. Cheese? They'd rather go on a hike than to Disneyland? They asked for togetherness, for time, for fun. Ultimately, they value the same thing I treasured with my grandpa: the simple gift of laughter. Laughter gives life. When our family laughs together, we make memories, and our hearts are bound by joy. Laughter doesn't deny the hardships and struggles. Like, Grandpa, we face illness and pain and an unknown future, And yet, because of Jesus, we can still laugh. Laughter lightens the load. Laughter makes memories. When they're grown, I want (my kids) to remember our home as a place that rang with laughter. I want them to recall the mealtimes when our sides ached, not fro

God intended that we become witnesses of his beauty, design, color, and pleasure so that we could gain a more intimate, real and personal knowledge of him. God does not want to be just a thought to know, but a personally engaging friend and Father whose relationship with us is filled with memory, delight, and moments to be experienced and enjoyed. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Philippians 4:4 Through nature, we observe that ours is a God of variety. The key to enjoying God in every moment of these daily pleasures is to open the eyes of my mind to see and to appreciate what he has given. A thankful heart galvanizes the connection between my God and me. It is when we come to see what he has given that we begin to be mature. It is when we understand that God's gifts are with consideration of our truest needs - for love, beauty, purpose, belonging - instead of for our selfish gratification, material possessions, ownership. When we are humble and appreci

The local sheriff had decided to tighten the requirements for his deputies. Each man had to qualify on the firing range, and the distance had been extended from fifteen yards to twenty-five yards. So the deputies gathered to try their hand at hitting the target at the increased distance. Each man had eighteen seconds to get off twelve shots. The best shot in the area is also a personal friend, George Burgin, who, together with his wife, Corenne, keeps an eye on Bill and me. The day before the trials he had been fitted with his first pair of trifocals. When his time came to shoot, he drew a bead on the target. "Suddenly," as he told me later, "I began to perspire. And when I perspire, my glasses fog up. There I was with a bead drawn on the target, and all I could see was fog." "Then I remembered what our old Navy instructor had taught us: "If (for some reason) you ever lose sight of the target,' he said, 'just remember your position.'"

Our biblical act of worship is not what we do on Sunday mornings in coats and ties, but our act of worship is a lifelong, seven-days-a-week process of placing ourselves upon an altar of sacrifice. Worship is living the principles of Christ in everything we do. You're worshiping god by what you do all week long. What's the difference between a Christian who's reaching out to people, trying to help people - and a Christian who sits like a fat cat on a pew? Well, maybe the Christian who's reaching out realizes the urgency and remembers what it was like before he knew about Jesus. Maybe he realizes that when people need help, they need Jesus above all else. When you take food to the poor, that's an act of worship. When you give a word of kindness to someone who needs it, that's an act of worship. When you write someone a letter to encourage them or sit down and open your Bible with someone to teach them, that's an act of worship. We're in a fast-moving

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1:2-4 Sally Clarkson writes in her book "Dancing with My Father" - "Life has been so much harder than I ever thought it would be as a child!" I concur! As she explored the verses in James above she found these nuggets of truth - "These verses focus more on developing internal righteousness and character. The testing James referred to is more of a practice and exercise of skill and strength, an external ability. In other words, we may make a commitment in our hearts to love Jesus and to follow him, but there come contests, so to speak, in our lives in which we have the opportunity to show and to prove the reality of our faith by our actions and our behavior. Only then is our faith worth something, and only then d