Tracy's Blog

In Philippians 2:1, the Apostle Paul lists several things that believers in Christ have in Christ - encouragement from being united with Christ, comfort from his love, fellowship with the Holy Spirit, tenderness, compassion. The phrase "comfort from his love" caught my attention so I started to think about what is this love? this comfort? It's the love of God the Father who determined that it was good to create you. Love that wanted you in this world. Love that is gracious and compassionate toward you. Love that is demonstrated by the Father sending His Son (John 3:16). It is the love of the Son, Jesus Christ, who "while we were still sinners" laid down His life to die for us. Love of Jesus that empowered Him to serve when He is the One who is worthy of being served by all. It's the fruitful and productive love of the Holy Spirit that is powerful and creative. Love that transforms and renews. It is love that covers a multitude of sins; love that never fails;...

I have a confession to make. Sunday afternoon is one of my worst times in the week. I get grouchy and irritable. It usually starts once I get out of the car from church (although it may even start on the way home) and ends around 4 pm (that seems to be the time that I go for a walk). This has been going on fairly consistently for almost 20 years. So, one Sunday, with great patience and wisdom, Clint suggested that I write a prayer to move me through the transistion of leaving church to coming back home and then to blog it. I'm finally acting on that. Here is what I've come up with: O Lord, I want to stay in Your presence with Your people, simply being who I truly am. No pressure, no "to-do" lists. Loving and worshipping You, receiving Your love and grace. But I don't know how to do that when I get out of this car - back into the busy, complicated, messiness of my life. Please be with me as I go. Help me to continue to worship and love You on this Lord's Day. G...

Do you ever feel like there isn't enough time in your day to do all the things you want? I sure do. Part of my problem is that I think I need to spend a certain amount of time on certain activities: excercise: 30 minutes, time with God: 30 minutes, phone call to a friend: 30 minutes, reading: 30 minutes. You get the idea. When I add it all up, there just isn't enough time to do it all so I often don't do any of it. Recently I had an encouraging thought: do I have 5 minutes? Yes, I do. Isn't it worth spending some time (even only 5 minutes) on these activities if they are important to me? I think so. When it comes to time with God, what can happen in 5 minutes? Here are some of my experiences: Reading a passage of Scripture (for example: Psalm 62 takes only 30 seconds to read) and then answering the question: what does this passage teach me about God? From Psalm 62: My soul finds rest in Him; my salvation comes from Him; He is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress...

Earlier this spring I was at a fenced-in dog park with our dog, Pepsi, and our toddler, Timmy. Pepsi is a Retriever (part Golden and part Labrador) so he loves to play "Fetch". I was tossing a floppy rubber disc for him to fetch when I accidently sent it flying over one of the fences. After settling Timmy in a safe place, I grabbed onto the chain-link fence, hoisted myself over, picked up the disc, threw it back, and climbed back over. Two thoughts rushed into my mind: "Wow, that was easier than I thought it would be!" and "With my God I can scale a wall". As I pondered the first, I came up with some ideas that may be applicable to the psalmists' words. Why was it easy for me to climb over a 6 foot fence when in the past I've found it hard to do that sort of thing? The answer: Timmy, my two year old. For two years I've been holding and carrying around this boy who has gradually increased from 8 to 28 pounds. My strength has increased little by ...

Walking into Walmart the other day I found that the section at the front of the store is now devoted to school supplies. The sandtoys, waterguns, and frisbees have been replaced by pencils, binders, and glue sticks. With the approach of school, I started to think of the old 3 R's "Reading, wRiting, and 'Rithmatic" and realized that there are also 3 R's the can be applied in our Christian life as we deal with our sin. Repent : Admit that you have sinned, that is is against God, and that you don't want to keep living like that anymore. That's the confession part of repenting (1 John 1:9). There is one more step - changing your orientation. Imagine yourself facing the sin that you have been participating in. You stand up, turn around, and walk in the opposite direction - towards obedience, towards life! When Jesus called people to repent (Mark 1:15), it was a call to a new life in the kingdom of God through the gospel. Receive : Open yourself up to receiving ...

I preached at HPWC on Sunday, May 9 and wanted to let you all in on the essence of my sermon so here is a section of it. The text was John 14:23-29 Jesus' disclosure of Himself to others depends on the person's response to Him. verse 23 - 24 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him , and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching." God is eager to show Himself to anyone who loves and obeys Him. Jesus doesn't show Himself to those who don't love Him and won't obey His teaching. How can anyone come to know God or plainly see Him if they are unwilling to submit to Him, to love Him since part of the essence of "being God" is being the One who is loved and obeyed. Revelation of God cannot happen apart from a relationship with God. That's just the way it is. And you know, if you were to remember just one thing from this sermon, I hope that this woul...

I recently read a novel about a young man on a journey searching for a treasure - a buried stash of gold and jewels. How did that treasure get there? Someone hid it. Why? With the intent of coming back to dig it up at the right time. But as the stories go, due to circumstances beyond the person's control (shipwrecks, murder, that kind of thing), they don't get back to dig up the treasure and instead tell someone about it on their deathbed or make a map for someone else to go find it. And so we end up with the classic tale of a treasure hunt. I'm been thinking about the value of God's revelation to us - the Bible. It really is a treasure beyond compare. Through its message we hear the story of our redemption and are summond to believe the good news we recently celebrated at Easter: the Son of God has died for our sins and is now alive! Sin and Satan have been conquered, there is now freedom to love and to truly live! So what are we to do with this treasure? Simply put: h...