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[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Unfolding a Letter of Encouragement

This world isn’t substantial — it’s fleeting and transient like a wisp of smoke. And he’s encouraging us to live for a much more substantive

by Kyle Borg | Almost twenty years ago, when I was in basic military training, my dad sent me a letter. My mom wrote to me almost every single day but dad penned one letter and it reached me at about the half-way point of my training. Admittedly, I was worn out, uncertain of why I had joined the Air Force, and I feared I’d “wash out” like many of the recruits I had joined with. Into that discouragement…

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Incomparable Comfort

The only – the only – thing that can satisfy the soul in these sorrows is the faithful promise of God to undo these calamities into the perfection of His joy.

by Kit Swartz | Two high school sweethearts were recently killed in Fulton in a car crash on a rain slicked road. They slid into the path of an oncoming car whose older couple was also seriously injured.  Shock, disbelief and confusion followed, along with many tributes to the victims and some genuine expressions of Christian faith and hope, especially by the older couple.  They were visiting from out...

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Serving God in Unglamorous Places

Lentil fields need defended because God's people need fed. And because once you lose them to the Philistines, it's very hard to get them back again.

by Stephen Steele | In 1848, during the Great Famine, there was a failed Irish nationalist uprising by the Young Irelanders. It culminated on 29 July in a gunfight which became known as 'The Battle of Widow McCormack’s Cabbage Patch'. One of the rebels was shot dead by the police. Another was fatally wounded. Yet even though it was a matter of life and death, it’s hard not...

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Seeing Jesus in an Unexpected Place

by Vanessa Le | You cannot pronounce her name. Our friends and family simply call her “Ba” which means “Ma’am.” No one knows her birthday; her mother died before she was two years old.  She has not, has never been, and never will be, elected to any political office. She does not hold a position in...

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

The Day of Small Things

by Lee Hutchings | Convinced I had good reasons, I told my dear friend Rhett Dodson that I was not interested in planting a church. I’ve been thinking about that conversation this past week as May 2nd marked the 5th anniversary of the first bible study and prayer meeting of Trinity Church PCA (pictured above). I’m so thankful ...

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

The Confession & Hard Providences

by Jeffrey A. Stivason | I can imagine the widow of Nain walking beside the casket of her son, her only son. Her support now gone, she trembles from the aching loss and the fear of insecurity. Or think of Jairus. His daughter near death, his only aim in life was to bring Jesus to her bedside. But before that happy meeting could occur, she was gone. Scripture is succinct. Its descriptions are...

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

If Predestination, Why Evangelism?

One of the questions that I receive as a Reformed minister from those outside of our theological tradition is this: "If predestination is true, why should we evangelize?" Superficially, the question makes sense and I don't blame anyone for asking it. If God is sovereign over who is saved and...

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

What did Elizabeth mean?

by Andrew Kerr | I was reflecting this morning on the prophetic greeting given to Mary when the unborn infant John leapt in his mother's womb. What did Elizabeth believe? Elizabeth believed that Mary had acted with propriety, kept her virginity and not behaved unseemly...