For the past two years, our church has offered a Blue Christmas on the Friday before Christmas. It’s a service designed for those who are hurting or in pain, feeling loss, depressed, anxious, or hurt. It provides an opportunity where you can just feel and not worry about not fitting into the gaiety of the holiday. I’m writing this on Saturday. Yesterday was Good Friday, tomorrow is Easter and I find myself thinking that this is actually a “Blue Christmas” kind of day, the day

Today in my Lent devotion, I read about Judas, the never to be forgotten, betrayer of all betrayers. He thought he was doing the right thing and yet… I also read, the day before, about the others who betrayed Jesus, his disciples. The moment Jesus was arrested his friends took flight and ran away. And Peter, his bestie, denied him three times. These guys spent three years with him, lived with him up close and personal and yet they all betrayed him. But, being the Jesus that h

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my followers, you must give up your own way, take up your cross and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” Matthew 16:24 Every week I receive a (requested) email from “ Help the Persecuted .” I learned of them through one of my favorite apps - The Pour Over . I had no idea what I was about to enter into. Because I had NO idea the