The Transforming Word of God

What hinders you from being strong spiritually? From spending time in the Word? From spending time in fervent prayer? What time-wasters control you, hinder you, from full obedience? I found myself convicted, asking myself those same questions as I read Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV): ...Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith... What sin entangles me so I cannot be effective? Does the lure of kitchen goodies waste my time and harm my body, the temple of the Holy Spirit? It really hurts when I name succumbing to that temptation as the sin that it is, the sin of gluttony. Or what about the computer game that calls to me every time I sit down to do those things for which a computer is necessary? Even responsibilities can hinder me from spending time loving my God. I need to ask myself if there are some responsi...

Anyone who knows me associates me with one or more of three things: stamping and handmade cards, varieties of loose black tea, and reading. I read at least one book almost every week. As an avid reader, especially of fiction, I'm discovering parallels in the author's creativity and God's sovereignty. I don't always understand what the author has in mind as she writes her novel, but that doesn't mean she has made a mistake. The same thing is true of God: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8, 9 (NIV) But I understand that the author has a plan as she begins writing, a plan that sometimes varies as she creates her characters. She knows how each person in her book thinks and acts and responds. But she also makes sure that somehow the ending is in line with h...