Author Archive: ValMay
He is the Lord God -faithful and true
Merry Christmas! We have now entered the Advent Season, which is deemed the beginning of the Church year. It is a time of preparing for the coming of the Lord Jesus – celebrating His birth, His coming in the past and anticipating His coming once again. Every year it is a struggle to keep focused …
I Know Something. Do You?
“When Father Michael looked up, his eyes met Ivena’s as she trudged under her cross. They were bright and sorrowful at once. She seemed to understand something but he could not know what. Perhaps she, too, had heard the song. Either way, he smiled, somehow less afraid than he had been just a minute ago. …
The Road Outside My Door
Bilbo: I’ll be fine. Just let me sit quietly for a moment. Gandalf: You’ve been sitting quietly for far too long. Tell me. When did doilies and your mother’s dishes become so important to you? I remember a young hobbit who was always running off in search of Elves in the woods. He’d stay out …
Are You a Pioneer or a Settler?
We are on an incredible journey at our church, Life Church Knoxville, and even though we don’t know what’s over the horizon we are trusting the Lord to lead us as we put one foot in front of the other. I am reminded again of the story of pioneers and settlers that I read years …
It’s Who You Know!
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, learned about faithfulness the hard way. He began his reign by faithfully obeying God’s commands. (2Chronicles 17:3-9). But he entered into a military alliance with Ahab, king of Israel, against God’s will. The results were disastrous and God was displeased. No wonder Jehoshaphat was anxious when more invading armies approached his …
Just Waitin’ On You Dad
Father’s Day is this Sunday. These type of celebratory days are great for some people and really hard for others. Great if you have a dad, or a significant father figure in your life: Hard, sad or depressing if your father has passed away or if you never had a father figure in your life …
Back to the Basics
In John 25, Jesus heals a blind man and some of the Jewish folks marched the now seeing man before the Pharisees whose perfunctory behavior was true to form: “obviously Jesus cannot be from God because he didn’t keep the Sabbath.” Talk about missing the big picture! They were always focusing on the wrong things. …
Is everything sad going to become untrue?” Prayers for Oklahoma
Is everything sad going to become untrue?” A few years ago my husband, Larry, read Tim Keller’s book ‘The Reason for God’ and I wanted to share some of his thoughts from the book on suffering as it relates to the joy of heaven. In light of the recent tornadic devastation in Oklahoma, I think …
Are We Ready?
I sometimes wonder what it would take to get us out of our comfortable churches and lives into a world that is desperately dying to hear about the love of Jesus. Actually, there seems to be more and more things happening around the globe – forcing believers to rethink who we/they are and what they …
Alert Expectation
“He lived in alert expectation of the kingdom of God.” I love reading about Joseph of Arimathea. We do not know a lot about him, but the scripture in Luke 28 gives us two facts about him that I respect. One, is that he had a good heart and good character, and two, he lived …
The Kingdom's Keeper 