Out of the Chaos
Inspiration for living outside of the chaos.
Tag: encouragement
OUT OF THE CHAOS 12.13.2021
Advent Week 3 – Joy The focus of this third week of advent is joy. What is joy? Is it happy? Does it depend on circumstances? The writing of Nehemiah records the rebuilding of the wall around the city of Jerusalem after the people returned from captivity in Babylon. The wall was finished in fifty-two …
OUT OF THE CHAOS 12.10.2021
Here we are just two weeks before Christmas. I wonder what you are experiencing. If you picked a movie to illustrate how you feel, would it be a Hallmark movie? How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Christmas with the Kranks? It’s a Wonderful Life? Or maybe something else entirely! What would you choose? I wonder if …
OUT OF THE CHAOS 12.09.2021
I struggled for many years with God’s love for me. I knew he loved others. I believe he loved the world. In the most general sense, I knew, in my head, he loved me. The distance from the knowledge in my head to the space in my heart aching to be loved unconditionally was strewn …
OUT OF THE CHAOS 12.08.2021
I, like many young people, wondered from an early age if I would marry one day. More than that, I believe my deepest longing was to be loved. Would someone love ME? Yesterday we discovered that before anything was created, God already loved humans and chose them to be holy in his sight. So even …
OUT OF THE CHAOS 12.07.2021
Sitting at the dentist’s office, I hear another advertisement for a reality show that toys with the idea of love before sight. Love at first sight is difficult enough to embrace, but love before sight? That seems a genuine stretch. Living in a world that, for the most part, rejects prearranged marriages, I wonder what …
OUT OF THE CHAOS 12.03.2021
I wonder today, as I finish this week of writing, how your week progressed. Did your thoughts turn to hope more often? Did you experience a greater level of confident expectation? I know that reading and writing about hope helped to refocus my attention on the foundation of my faith and refreshed my outlook. I …
OUT OF THE CHAOS 12.01.2021
I have many fond memories of going to my grandparent’s house. There were certain things you could count on, certain corners that remained the same. There was the cookie jar. Sitting in the corner of the counter, it always held cookies. The cookie jar wasn’t air tight so Grandma put the cookies in a plastic …
OUT OF THE CHAOS 11.30.2021
HOPE: confident trust with the expectation of fulfillment! Hope that characterizes the kingdom of God, the reign of Jesus prophesied in scripture, isn’t wishful thinking. It is solid certainty, expectation that knows fulfillment! 4Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we …
OUT OF THE CHAOS 11.29.2021
Sunday, November 28, marked the official beginning of Advent 2021. Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas Day when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah. Promised to Abraham thousands of years ago, it finds fulfillment in the birth of a baby, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born to a virgin, Mary …
OUT OF THE CHAOS 11.26.2021
10But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. 11No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. 12And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), …
Out of the Chaos 