April 2011 – Page 5 – 300 words a day

Unexpecting Hope.

Today is Hope’s birthday. She’s our youngest child. I suppose that it’s odd that on her birthday, you are going to read about her older sister. But I want you to know the kind of person that Hope is becoming, the wisdom and maturity this one-day-past teenager shows. And the best way to help you know […]

by Jon Swanson

How to take a step of faith

The people of Israel were on the wrong side of the Jordan River. By wrong side, I mean the side away from the promised land. They had a forty-year old memory of what happens in situations like this: Moses holds up a walking stick and the waters split like a Cecil B DeMille movie. But […]

by Jon Swanson

The temptation of spring break.

For most schools around us, this week is “spring break.” It’s a week of great temptation. Not for the kids who head to the south, free of parental constraints, susceptible to all kinds of appeals. Well maybe for them. But certainly for people who are left behind, who are still having events. Certainly for executive pastors […]

by Paul Merrill

Jesus had a sense of humor

(Paul Merrill writes here every First Friday) Jon and I discussed that today is April Fool’s Day. How does that relate to following Jesus? Simply this – Jesus had a sense of humor! He was as much a human as the rest of us. (See Colossians 2:9.) In a mystery that I do not understand, […]