Lenten Devotional

Day 19 – March 26, 2025 In 2004, we left a home we loved for Seattle, WA where Jerrel had a new job waiting for him. Our church family helped pack us up and prayed for us on our way off. We were wary of this new adventure, but Jerrel needed the job. In Seattle, we found a wonderful church and quickly made friends. This church supported us spiritually, emotionally, and financially when Jerrel was looking for work again. I worked for the church for seven years, most of the time as the Administrator. During my last year, the church had a new senior pastor who had many ideas to grow the church. I found out on a Monday that

Day 18 – March 25, 2025 GOD HAS A PLAN We went into the wilderness when Dixie was diagnosed with early-stage three lung cancer in December 2016. Our kids were twelve, ten, and six.  My dad was dying from his own terminal prognosis of the same disease. The world seemed like it was crashing down on us. The temptations during that period of awfulness came from a lot of directions. We were angry, afraid and we were lashing out at God. Why was this happening to us? Dixie was young. Healthy.  She’d gone for a run the day before she was diagnosed. She wasn’t a smoker. As a person who craves control over my life and circumstances, I was losing

Day 17 – March 24, 2025 My favorite bible verse is James 1: 2-4. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.” Notice James says “when,” not “if,” you face trials. Twenty-four years ago, my husband Curtis Taylor developed Sarcoma cancer in his chest.  Due to plastic surgery he would need, we were advised to go to M.D. Anderson in Texas. Most of the time we were there, it was just the two of us. I always went with him for his treatments in case

On this Third Sunday in Lent, we are not quite halfway to Easter from Ash Wednesday, but close.  It is good to consider how far we’ve come, but there is still plenty of time until the cross.  Plenty of time to jump on this Lenten experience to grow closer to Christ! Today’s sermons will include Isaiah 55:1-9 and Psalm 63:1-8.  We hope you will join us in person or online as we join in the fellowship of Christian believers that happens when two or more of us join together to grow in faith. Isaiah 55:1-9 is known as the “invitation to the thirsty.”  Anyone who has been to the grocery store lately can appreciate the call at the beginning of

Day 18 – March 22, 2025 The word wilderness evokes many images. I often picture an overgrown forest—quiet, untouched, and teeming with wildlife as God intended. In the Bible, wilderness often refers to a place of isolation, a setting for spiritual encounters and transformation. In Matthew 4, Jesus undergoes His own wilderness experience, revealing His heart of trust in God. Through His example, He teaches us to rely on God’s provision in our own seasons of wilderness. The season of Lent invites us into this space—a time to step away from distractions and depend on God’s faithfulness. This might take the form of fasting, prayer, or resisting the distractions of the world. As parents, it is especially crucial to carve

Day 17 – March 21, 2025 Out of the Wilderness – Matthew 4:1-11 Abundance.  Power.  Invulnerability. We want those things.  We fear being hungry, having no control, being harmed. Jesus wanted them too.  At least his human part did.  It is part of being human, and he was fully man. Our fear keeps us alive.  But like any good thing, it can be perverted by excess. In the wilderness, these fears can crowd upon you.  These wants can grow intense. That is when temptation comes.   It hides in reason, in flattery, in deception. Jesus was hungry.  He hadn’t eaten for days.  The Tempter reasoned: Because he was God, he need not want.  But Jesus came to feel hunger as a