Believing God. Do you? Really? I don’t mean a head nod of “Yeah, I believe in God. He’s real and His Word is true. Yada, yada.” I mean, “Yes, when God says _______ in His Word, He means it and I should get on board. Today. Let’s look at an Old Testament king who took…

As part of coursework for my masters degree, I had to memorize Romans 6:1-14. To determine my grade, I had to write out all fourteen verses and deduct points for mistakes. I thought that since I would have to write it out for a grade, I would learn it by writing it out. Here’s the…

Weeds. I hate them. And in one particular patch, they’re everywhere. Disrespect. Self-centeredness. Laziness. While I occasionally glimpse kindness, selflessness, and maturity, the few healthy plants in the plot are fighting for their lives. What to do? Those who raised me attacked my weeds with large doses of correction. An ugly weed poked its head…

What day is it? Ask Granny, and she won’t have a clue thanks to her dementia. Ask her about the past, however, and she recalls things with great clarity. I want to do the same. Remember the past, specifically, my past with God. I won’t let spiritual dementia rob my memory. I want to remember.…

Ice cream. Mary, my mother-in-law, loves it. She would eat it all day, every day with a few Oreos thrown in for good measure. One thing we’ve learned with her dementia is she’s not aware of basic needs: hunger, thirst, even pain. She gets grumpy or frustrated, but can’t hone in on what’s bugging her.…

“Who are you?” My mother-in-law looked at me intently. “You go with Russell, right?” Right. The same thing happened with the kids. Following surgery, meds aggravated my mother-in-law’s dementia. She couldn’t stay by herself, so we took shifts. My daughter came to Granny’s apartment for her turn. All was fine when I left. Two hours…

Her knee hurt, and as she sat in the hospital bed, my mother-in-law didn’t know why. It could have been the surgery she had put off, but had finally had that morning, but she didn’t remember. She just knew her knee hurt. The following dialogue was on repeat until the anesthesia finally ended its dance…

My mother-in-law fidgeted with her IV and clawed at the ice pack on her leg. “Where am I?” The anesthesia and her moderate dementia teamed up for a few weeks following knee replacement surgery, and she couldn’t remember where she was. Even after we brought her home, my mother-in-law’s familiar surroundings were familiar no longer.…

Romans 12:21 (NIV) says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” When I picture evil being overcome, I tend to think of the book of Revelation, but I think I’m wrong. Perhaps Revelation is God’s judgment of evil. Perhaps evil is overcome when it ceases to be evil by choosing to…

In last week’s post, “The Defense Rests,”  we talked about giving up our self defense and allowing God to handle it. But wait. There’s more. Leaving room for God’s wrath isn’t enough. The apostle Peter leads us to action in 1 Peter 3:9 (NIV), “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but…