pmerrill – Page 18 – 300 words a day

Rest. Pray. Talk.

Three teenage young men are excitedly discussing music videos and life in the next room. I’m glad for the extreme enthusiasm flowing through the doorway. Sometimes I am a tired parent. That youthful enthusiasm rises to the surface fewer times than it did in my earlier years. So it’s nice to be surrounded by that! […]

by Paul Merrill

Abide

Abide is one of those words that left our vocabulary about the time most people stopped using the King James Version of the Bible. But it’s a great word. In John 15:5-7, Jesus speaks about abiding in Him. I don’t want to summarize what he said, so here’s the passage (from the New Living Translation): […]

by Paul Merrill

The joy of your presence

God wants to be with us. He wants to share a cup of coffee during our early mornings, chat for a few moments in the lull of our mid afternoons – and relax next to us while we watch TV at night. The beginning of Genesis describes the Garden of Eden, the perfect place God […]

by Paul Merrill

Stop

Sometimes the best way to start over is to clear your plate. The most vibrant church Heather and I were part of did just that. They wiped all their ministries off the plate. Small groups, worship teams, drama, Sunday school programs. Everything. And they let God rebuild the church slowly. They lost a lot of […]

by Paul Merrill

We all can’t be hands

Many have approached this new year with ideas of things they would like to do differently this time through. It’s really nice to have a fresh start. We all need places and times to begin again. However, I ask you to proceed with caution. It’s easy to give yourself goals that may be unrealistic or […]