Tracy's Blog

"Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”” Luke 23:46a At the point of death, Jesus cries out a phrase from Psalm 31:5 and gives all He has to His Father (Luke 23:44-46 ).   His life is now almost over having been sentenced to death by an angry mob and a calculating politician and yet, this is not the full picture. He has submitted Himself to God every step of the way and here is where He has ended up... on the cross, abandoned by His followers, in the company of sinners, and still living by faith. Jesus is an example to us of full surrender to God. Regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the pain, regardless of what others say, Jesus offers Himself to God. One of the definitions of surrender in the dictionary is “to give (oneself) up (as to the police”. Surrender means stopping trying to control a situation and letting those in authority direct how things go. Unarmed, people who surrender to the police have to entrust...

"Yet not as I will, but as You will."  Matthew 26:39b At bedtime tonight, Timmy and I were talking about things God created.  We got onto the topic of Jesus.  I explained to him the incarnation - that Jesus is God who became human; He was not created but really was a human.  Now I don't know if he got it but I hope that eventually he will because acknowledging the two natures of Christ (human and divine) impacts our interpretation of the Gospels and therefore our lives significantly.   The humaness of Jesus is very evident as He wrestled in prayer in the Garden of Gethesame. See Matthew 26:36-44 .  During that difficult night, He was exceedingly overwhelmed with sorrow, He begged God to take away the suffering ahead of Him, and He found His companions to be unable to resist their urge to sleep when He was asking them to pray.  Talk about intense and challenging!  Yet what does He say? "Yet not as I will, but as You will."...

Mark 1:35 " Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed ." Do you find it easy to be alone?  Some people do while for others it is quite a challenge.  I was one of the "challenged" people.... being alone meant boredom or, even worse, tapping into what was going on inside of me.  So when friends of mine were reading Henri Nouwen's " Out of Solitude " and talking about the benefits of taking time to be alone with God, I found it scary but appealing.  Now, to help you understand my story, I was reading my Bible and praying regularly at this time.  I even journalled what I was learning and wrote out Bible passages that encouraged me.  But I didn't know how to be still before God, to be in a solitary place with God where my prayer included not only talking to God but also listening to Him.  The process of learning to listen to God is ongoing but one of t...

I've been talking with a few friends recently about the importance of memorizing Scripture. It's one of those things I think about doing but find it hard to get to. Back when I was a kid and attended a Thursday after-school Bible Club, I memorized new verses every week because I was motivated by the prizes I would receive for reciting Bible verses. But it is time to change things. The "prize" I receive when I memorize and then proclaim Scripture is much greater than a candy or a funky notepad. God's Word is a power weapon in our spiritual battle and aids our resistance to the devil and our pursuit of God's kingdom. Look at the example of Jesus: Matthew 4:1-11 Jesus answered Satan's temptations with Scripture - even when Satan was using Scripture against Him (see verse 6 ). If this was Jesus' strategy, I think it is to be ours as well. So, what are we to do? Psalm 119:11 says, "I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against you....