Tracy

The Christmas Baby A little child who had just learned the story of Christmas was at a shopping mall with his parents and looking at all the decorations: Santa and his elves, the tree adorned with ornaments and lights and then asked the question, “But where is Jesus?” Why do the merchants leave Jesus out? [...]

Are You Looking Forward to Christmas? I love Christmas! The joyful atmosphere, the beautiful decor, the reminder that God came to earth looking for us!  I found a survey asking people: “If they were looking forward to Christmas?” While most answered yes, far too many said no. When asked why, they gave a variety of [...]

Sharing Our Faith at Christmas One of my favorite Christmas hymns is, Go Tell it on the Mountain!   Whether it is initiating a conversation with someone hurting, sharing how Jesus can bring them through their crises, or getting our hands dirty by demonstrating Christ’s love by caring for the hungry, broken and poverty stricken through [...]

What a motley crew of Six! Some of our Casuarina boys from left to right: Kadenge, Toby, Nicholas, Right, Dickson and Dennis  actually made a great crew earlier this month. Donning their masks they ventured into the village with us in the Casuarina mini bus to distribute maize flour to the orphans on the feeding [...]

Thanksgiving Afterglow Continuing in the afterglow of Thanksgiving are thoughts from Sarah Young’s, “Jesus Calling:” Thankfulness takes the sting out of adversity. That is why I have instructed you to give thanks for everything. There is an element of mystery in this transaction:  You give Me thanks (regardless of your feelings), and I give you [...]

Do I Belong to Jesus? The Giving season is always a challenge for me. It is an opportunity to check in and examine my faith. When I preach to you about your commitment to the Lord, the Lord also squeezes more of me: to be more generous financially, to engage in more conversations about Him [...]

Giving a Peanut - Buying the Peanut Farm I remember two different prayers: “Lord I want to make $ 1 million dollars before I die.” Then there was another prayer: “Lord may I give $1 million dollars away before I die.” In His book, “The Blessed Life,” Robert Morris states, “When God does a work [...]

Angels Watching Over Me A woman attended a beach party in California. The Barbeque wasn’t ready yet, so she decided to go for a swim by herself in the ocean. That turned out to be a dangerous idea.  She swam out too far and was suddenly caught in a powerful undertow. Though she swam with [...]

Joy in All Situations Jim Denison tells about the time when J.S. Bach returned from a year-long concert tour he discovered that his wife and child had died. He wrote in his diary that day, “Dear Lord, take not my joy from me.” Imagine thinking of joy at such a time.  But Bach was right, [...]

Holy Spirit & Gentleness One of the fruits of the Spirit is gentleness. Aristotle gave the word its classic definition: “the man who is always angry at the right time and never at the wrong time. Someone who controls their emotions, no matter the circumstances.” Plato illustrated gentleness as “the power to soothe and calm, [...]