Life is a challenge! Living life is a challenge! As we live our lives, each one of us will ultimately have our own cross to bear, pain to endure and obstacles to overcome, and every adversity we undergo is necessary and important to our purpose and life’s work. Without some ...

We are all the result of the wandering and the coming together of many people, immigrants who packed their worldly wares into trunks and their dreams into their hearts.  My great-great grandparents left Germany in 1870 with dreams of a new home in America, sailing aboard a ship called Leipzig ...

Who doesn’t love a good mystery? I remember spending much of my weekly allowance at our local bookstore on my favorite mystery series, Nancy Drew. A lovely strawberry-blond teenager wearing a cloche hat and a beautiful tweed dress, tooling around town in her new convertible given to her by her ...

If you don’t take the Bible seriously, and literally, you may as well not even read it. Just put it on your bookshelf with all your other books and leave it there. Really! The sad truth is that many people do not take it literally, but the evidence points to ...

The lure of finding gold in Colorado seemed worth the gamble in 1859, as many men struggled to make ends meet in a down economy. Pulling up stakes and spending six months’ income to purchase a team of oxen, risking disease and possible attacks, was outweighed by the strong pull ...

She was the daughter of a Civil War soldier. She passed away before she was thirty, leaving three little girls to grow to womanhood without her influence.  Among the faded certificates of her birth, marriage, and death, there were no images of the young woman, nothing to show the color ...

The recipient of an invitation to a feast in the 18th century could look forward to several large courses at the banquet table. First would come steaming mushroom broth, then beetroot salad, and baked pudding. Next would come rich meats that included boiled rabbit, as well as chicken and stewed ...

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. (Matthew 7:1-2) “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be ...

Fruit is the tangible evidence of life. Only live plants can produce fruit. Nourishment travels from the roots to the branches, sustaining the fruit. Stay with me Now. Jesus refers to Himself as the vine and to us as branches. Unless we are attached to the vine, we are not receiving ...

I remember May Basket Day on the first of May when I was a small child. My mother would help me make cone-shaped paper baskets, then we’d pick Lilly of the Valley and violets from the abundant supply in our yard and fill the little paper holders with fragrant blooms. ...