Janet Sketchley's Blog: Tenacity, page 87

Living Free or Tyrannized

Since Jesus went through everything you’re going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you’ll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want.

1 Peter 4:1-2, MSG*

These are good verses to take into the new year, and to memorize for perspective.

Whether we’re suffering or simply living amid the day-to-day opportunities for sel...

Review: The Greatest Gift, by Ann Voskamp

The Greatest Gift, by Ann Voskamp (Tyndale House, 2013)

What better antidote to the stress and hurry-hurry of December than a few quiet minutes, every day, to re-orient our thinking and ponder the true meaning of Christmas?

The Greatest Gift, subtitled “Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas,” is a collection of Advent devotional readings tracing the promise of a Saviour – “the love story that’s been coming for you since the beginning” (p. x).

Each day’s reading begins with a page of Script...

Christmas

The King has come.

Let every heart prepare Him room,

Let every spirit live to worship and delight in Him.

Let every knee bow, every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.

Let us be ready for His return.

When God Does Something Good

“How kind the Lord is!” [Elizabeth] exclaimed. “He has taken away my disgrace of having no children.”

Luke 1:25, NLT*

North American culture today doesn’t equate a woman’s worth with her fertility, but for women in Bible times, failure to produce a child – especially a male heir – was a source of shame.

What strikes me here is Elizabeth’s response. She’s old by this point, well past natural childbearing age. God surprises her with a miracle pregnancy as announced by an angel to her husband, Zech...

Review: Less than Dead, by Tim Downs

Less than Dead, by Tim Downs (Thomas Nelson, 2008)

A multi-million-dollar building project is stalled when excavators clearing the forest discover an old graveyard… and some of the graves have a second body buried on top of the casket. What better place for a murderer to dispose of a body than in a graveyard?

Nick Polchak is a forensic entomologist – meaning he studies the insects on and around a corpse to determine time of death and if the place of death is the same as where the body was found...

Patrick’s Territorial Cat

Where do writers get their ideas? If you’ve readSecrets and Lies, you metPatrick’s cat. (Although, as he says, it’s hard to think of something that independent ashis.)

The cat appears in chapter 6. Carol andPatrick are in his living room. It’s her first time there, and she chose to sit in the rocking chair:

As Patrick pulled his cell from his pocket, a slender Siamese cat paraded into the room and positioned itself in front of the rocking chair like a guard. Its stare turned Carol’s admiration...

Why Jesus is Relevant

Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.

Titus 3:5a-7, MSG*

When I was a child, our church encouraged us to invite our friends to Sunday School, and to let them know that Jesus loved them.

I never knew what to say to them about Jesus. That lasted into early adulthood. All I had was, “You need to believe in Him so you’ll go to Heaven w...

Review: When God Interrupts, by M. Craig Barnes

When God Interrupts, by M. Craig Barnes (InterVarsity Press, 1996)

“Finding new life through unwanted change.” The book’s subtitle promises hope, and the notion of God interrupting isn’t meant as blaming Him for the pain we experience. I think the idea is that God interrupts the pain and disappointment.

The introduction begins this way: “We just keep losing things: wives, husbands, friends, health, the dreams and security of the past.” (p. 9) When God Interruptscalls these losses abandonment, a...

En-joying Advent

I hope last week’s post, On Joy and Interruptions, wasn’t a downer. The intent was to acknowledge and work through some of the feelings common to the season, but maybe the positives didn’t come through clearly enough.

Everyone finds their own way, and different circumstances impact our situations, but whether life in general is happy or sad, Christmas comes just the same. Not everyone was happy and peaceful in Bethlehem when God broke into human history.

Now that I’ve embraced the Christmas sea...

Bring Out the Best

Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.

1Thessalonians 5:15b, MSG*

Most translations render this verse as “always do good to one another” or “always follow after the good for one another.” I’m not entirely sure looking for and bringing out the best in one another is the same thing, but it’s definitely one way of doing good to another or working for his or her good.

Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.

This begins with a Christ...