Category: Uncategorized

Merciful
I’m thankful for a God that is merciful. A beautiful portion of Lamentations has been a special encouragement to me, and has been shared by several friends who have faced trials in the past year.

It is of the Lord‘s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23

It reminds me of two songs that we have sung many times at Wolf Mountain.

The Steadfast Love of the Lord

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
His mercies never come to an end.
They are new ev’ry morning,
New ev’ry morning.
Great is thy faithfulness, O Lord.
Great is thy faithfulness.

Mercies Anew

Ev’ry morning that breaks there are mercies anew.
Ev’ry breath that I take is your faithfulness proved,
And at the end of each day when my labors are through,
I…

Encouragement
My pastor’s wife has a habit of praying specific Scripture passages for people, which is an idea that I love! There are so many times you can find a verse that’s applicable to someone’s need – why not just pray that for them?! A friend sent this passage as an encouragement to me today, and I love it! I would love to know that people are praying this for our family.

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints…

All-Powerful
If God wasn’t all-powerful, we might have reason to question His ability to do what we request of Him. If He wasn’t all-powerful, we couldn’t be certain that His will was actually what has happened to Ellie. We can look at stories throughout the Bible from Creation to the Return of Christ that tell of God’s power. Because He is all-powerful, Jon and I can rest during this time of turmoil.

We are excited to look back on this time and tell Ellie and Brooklynn stories of God’s power. We don’t know what the bills will look like from our stay in Tennessee, but we are truly happy to be able to see Him meet our needs in unexpected ways.

As we work with college-age individuals regularly, we know that finances are a big need that is on most of their minds (and the minds of their parents). Jon…

Sovereign
One of my favorite attributes of God to ponder is His sovereignty. I have heard the statement, “If you only focus on one of God’s attributes, you will end up with an unbalanced view of God.” It’s true that if we only talk about God’s love we may overlook His justice. If we only focus on God’s mercy we may overlook His wrath. God is perfect, and so all His attributes are completely perfect.

God is sovereign. He is in control and He is all-powerful. All of His other attributes make His sovereignty something to be excited about! Because God is loving, His sovereignty isn’t something to be afraid of.

A quote that struck a cord with me about 10 years ago states how most of us (me included) tend to feel about God’s will for us:

“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for…

Refining
Our pastor is at it again! 🙂 He has been a continual encouragement to us from across the country. He shared this verse with us a couple of days ago and said it jumped off the page at him. It has definitely been a soothing salve to our hearts as well.

“Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, will I do it: for how shall my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.”
Isaiah 48:10-11

He explained this passage this way:

It isn’t always about chastening, purging, or correction. Sometimes God chooses the platform of affliction to simply make Himself BIG in the eyes of the audience.

We are thankful that in the “furnace of affliction” God’s grace is present, abundant, and sustaining. His grace is accessible to…

Sweet
I’ve heard rumors of a cinnamon roll in Texas that weighs 5 pounds. While Jon wanted to add a stop on our epic road trip of America, I personally think that’s just too much sweetness to be enjoyable. Though sugary sweetness can sometimes be too much to handle, it’s rare that you wish for less sweetness in life. We are learning that you appreciate the sweet times much more when you experience the not-so-sweet times.

We feel like this is a good correlation to the Gospel. When you begin to realize how sinful you really are, God’s gift of salvation becomes sweeter. When you think about all the torment that Christ went through, His willingness to do the will of His Father becomes more precious. God sent His Son so that He could offer us eternal life and redeem us from our sin. There was nothing in us that was desirable…