The Fish Tank

Have you ever gone fishing? I used to fish with my dad when we would go to Lake Arrowhead in California. I remember one time my sister and I were fishing on opposite sides of the dock. We were back-to-back. We both felt a tug on our lines and began to reel in. After fervently reeling and not getting anywhere, we finally realized we hadn't caught a fish. Instead, we caught each other. Our lines were tangled. I have since continued the fishing tradition with my boys. I love sitting on the dock with them, poles in the water. They love to play with the worms but don't especially like stabbing them with a hook, so I usually have to bate their hooks. Most of the time, we are unsuccessful and don't catch a thing. But, when we do, the boys go wild when they see that fish flopping out of the water. Have you ever seen a fish on a hook as it's being pulled from the water? That thing goes crazy flipping and flopping all over the place; gasping for air. The more it moves, the more...

"Give me a snowflake and I will believe God for an avalanche." Beth Moore Recently, I was watching Beth Moore preach. She talked about one morning when she woke up in the predawn hours thinking she heard rain. When she pulled back the curtains, she was surprised to see snowflakes. She was very excited about this (probably since she is from Houston) and decided to pray that God would bring more than just a few snowflakes. She prayed he would bring an avalanche. This example prompted two thoughts in me: How am I limiting God in my life? When our faith seems small (like a snowflake), God shows up big (like an avalanche). Too often, I limit my prayers, thus limiting God. I pray for the snowflake when he wants to give me the avalanche. I live in North Texas. If we are lucky, we may get one or two snow storms a year. Some winters we have nothing. While others, we can receive a foot of snow or debilitating ice storm. I am originally from Southern California so snow is exci...

One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:39-43 The thief on the cross. We like him. Well, most of us do. We like that he was a criminal yet, Jesus told him he would be with him in paradise. It comforts us to know that we, too, may make it to paradise one day even though we are a royal mess. I went out on a limb and listened to a podcast with a speaker who has gone a little rogue in the Christian faith. Honestly, I was going to skip over this one because I didn't want to hear her rhetoric...