Amazing Love Lifted Me

  You never know what's just down the road.   Yesterday morning, Jonathan and I were in Forest, VA at a Kroger getting gas.  While at the pumps my phone went off twice with a Severe Weather Alert - Tornado Warning.   We could see the Blackest Cloud literally just down the road.   It was very eerie.  After a few minutes we then heard and saw fire trucks, EMS, and other emergency vehicles heading east.    I prayed that everyone was okay and the loss was not too severe.  The video above will give you a taste of what the folks that was in the path of the tornado encountered.  Just down the road lives of many changed.  The touch of God can change your path too.  Are you healed by the blood of the lamb?  Do you feel God's touch in your life? The Bible doesn't tell us that just because we believe in God that life will be easy.  In fact, the message is clear that we will experience hardship, disappointment, los...

  For those of us that have trouble memorizing scripture, we can take comfort in finding the shortest verse in the Bible, "Jesus Wept".  Even I can remember that one.   There is certainly much of the Bible that deals with the solemn, serious nature of Jesus, punctuated by his death on the cross.  But it raises the question, did Jesus laugh?  I don't believe there are any direct references to Jesus laughing in the Bible, but there were definitely times when Jesus experienced joy. He found joy in performing miracles, including bringing people from death to life.  And he also found great joy in bringing people to know God through himself.  While it is hard to know how cultural norms might influence humor over the centuries, some might say that "having a plank in your eye" or "a camel walking through the eye of a needle" are humorous in some contexts.  If the rest of us experience joy, then Jesus, being fully God and fully human, surely...