trust – Page 3 – 300 words a day

Let’s just ask

He asked for healing. Jesus did what he asked. We forget the many accounts of Jesus and his actions in Matthew. (Or maybe you haven’t read them yet.) Go to Matthew 8. Two in a row – first there’s a guy with leprosy. He comes up and says to Jesus that if he’s willing, he […]

by Paul Merrill

Babylon – and babies

Holding your own child for the first time is one of the greatest joys ever. Seeing your grown child make a desperately bad choice is one of the most gut wrenching experiences on this planet. We can’t know what lies ahead. So depending on previous experiences – or our level of optimism – we can […]

by Jon Swanson

Five years, five years later.

(I first published this over five years ago, on June 24, 2010. Did any of you take my advice then? What if we started now?) “What do you want to be true of you as a leader in five years? What do you want your wife to say about you as a church leader? What […]

by Paul Merrill

Hope.

Hope is the best way to live and breathe. Hope is also the name of Jon and Nancy’s daughter, but you knew that already. (And there’s a great story behind her name.) Hope is big in the Bible. Something close to 189 mentions of the word turned up when I did a search. The strongest […]

by Paul Merrill

God does not do things the way you do

God often uses ways totally different from the ways humans normally operate. John was a prophet who came before Jesus and prepared the way for him. Yet if he were alive today and living his normal life, most Christians would categorize him as mentally ill and homeless. “For food he ate locusts and wild honey.” […]