Mike Fisk & Built with Grace

This week the Springfield community desperately seeks to get our hearts and minds around the fact that one of our own neighbors decided to extinguish the vibrant life of an innocent ten-year-old. These neighbor-to-neighbor conversations have taken place all over the region in churches, workplaces, gyms, retail stores, sports practices, classrooms, and so many other places. Hard questions, tender questions, poignant questions, whispered questions, tearful questions, just questions. No one is immune to the heartache and sadness of these events. All of us wonder how best to respond to this atrocity.

So we respond. Porch lights all over the world burn bright in Hailey’s memory. An entire region dresses in pink and purple to show solidarity with each other and her family. Memorial funds bulge with individual contributions in an effort to ease the family’s pain. Restaurants offer special meal deals in an effort to raise gifts for the Owen…

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.”Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving   to overflow to the glory of God.   Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I read the line “Therefore we do not lose heart” and…

There are some days like last night, February 18, and this morning, when I am reminded of what I hate most and love most. The news of Hailey Owens’ abduction in Springfield and the subsequent news of the alleged abductor being a Springfield School District employee shock us to our very roots. We are left as a community in tears, out of breath as we try to contemplate the plight of this little girl. We wince when we begin to allow our brains just for a moment to consider what may have happened.

What we hate…

The overwhelming sense of our community is shock to think that one of us would choose to take the life of a child innocently outside at home after school on a gorgeous afternoon. We hate that one would even consider, much less perpetrate, this kind of crime. We hate that our world is so…

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts.Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith. You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.  He humbles those who dwell on high, he lays the lofty city low; he levels it to the ground and casts it down to the dust.  Feet trample it down— the feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor.

Prayer: Father God, in my heart of hearts I desire to live…

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God,   which transcends all understanding,   will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.   Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Prayer: Father God, We have read this passage many times. It’s so hard to rejoice when things seem hopeless. So hard to sense your peace when the future seems bleak. So hard…