Light In Your Corner

I Need a Hero  We are flying through the plagues today, making little observations about all the ways God provides and delivers. This is HIS story, after all.  And His story is still going on today, in our lives. So we ask, how does He still provide? How does He still deliver? When I set myself up as Pharaoh, how does He firmly and lovingly remind me of who really holds the reins? How does He poin...

When Things are Hard, You Can Trust God’s Heart There may be a lot of questions raised by the first chapters of Exodus, but one thing is very clear: God knows what He is about. And soon everyone is going to know.  In chapters 5-7, we see how God responds to doubt and how He responds to evil, and it’s not necessarily the same response. When we are scared, He says, “Look at Me. Look at what I have d...

He sees, He Hears, He Knows Today’s story happened thousands of years ago across the globe, but it’s just so easy to relate to it—because who hasn’t looked into the face of uncertainty, fear, and even slavery, and called out for help? Maybe you have wondered if God hears, if He knows, if He sees you. Exodus 2-4 answers that question with a resounding “Yes!” God introduces Himself to the chosen del...

What to Expect When You’re Expecting Miracles Hey, friends! We are back with a brand new season of Light in Your Corner! That’s right. It’s been a hot minute, but we are diving right into Exodus 1 this week. Well, maybe not diving. More like wading into it. It is easy to fly through Exodus because it is so familiar. After the life of Jesus, it may be the most retold story in film; and for good rea...

God Bless Us, Every One!   It’s almost Christmas, friends, and God is already giving gifts! He’s so good, isn’t He? Merry Christmas, everyone. You are all gifts to us and we are so grateful for the time you spend with us and the encouragement you share. May God bless you all with His Light this Christmas! ALSO: “You talk to the Lord with that mouth?”  Did the devil really make you do it The power...

Awaiting Christmas When You Know You Have Enough The media tells us that the season of giving thanks is past and now it’s time to focus on the real deal: giving presents. We spend money, time and energy finding tokens of love for those we care about. Or maybe just some tokens of acknowledgment for people around us. But giving thanks is just as important now as it ever was because God is giving us...

The Freedom of Not Having All the Answers Hey Friends! We are back at it and talking about the Fall into sin, free will, helping people when we don’t feel like it, and how there are lots of things we just don’t understand. Sounds like a party, doesn’t it? The good news is that we have a God who knows how to throw a great party in spite  of all that. And we are stepping into the abundance and leavi...

Fighting for the Abundance Mentality All over the Bible, from beginning to end, God is giving His children good things. And not just a few good things; a whole kingdom of good things.  It’s no secret that there’s a disconnect, a tragic separation between the reality of God’s abundant love and our ability to recognize it around us. It doesn’t come naturally anymore. It takes the Holy Spirit working...

Anyone who thinks Christianity is boring or easy has never read 2nd Peter. And today we head into the last chapter of 2nd Peter with Peter’s clear instruction: don’t forget what you learned from the prophets and from Jesus. People will come who will try to confuse us, who will mock God and mock us.  But there is hope! Jesus is coming back! And we get to look forward to it!  So how do we live like...

Be Prepared! No one likes the sound of sirens. They indicate something is coming. Something bad, usually. We associate a siren’s warning with emergency responders and storms. They usually tell us that someone has been hurt, or that there is a risk that someone could be hurt soon.  But there’s another side to sirens too. They show that someone is there, paying attention and responding. They show th...

You Know This! Have you felt unprepared for a test? Your palms sweat, your heart races, your stomach hurts, and your brain plays “you can’t do this” on repeat in your head. You just want to get it done so you can face the consequences and get on with your life.  Unpreparedness can cause a lot of confusion and fear, which was just what the false teachers of Peter’s time were trying to spread. And P...

Got Any Last Words? What would you tell people if you knew you were going to die soon? When you looked at the world and the people around you, what would you want your loved ones to know? Peter knew his time to die was soon and so he wrote a letter, the letter we know as 2nd Peter. Songs and stories have been written with this premise–what you would do if you knew you were going to die–but they do...

It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood  Hey, Friends! We are back to close out our discussion on 1st Peter. And today we talk about where we put our focus.  Where do we look when we are suffering? Where do we look when we are tempted? Where do we look when our fears won’t let us go? Peter tells us to look up, to look to Jesus. And then he tells us to look out, to love our neighbor.  But how do w...

Getting Real: Your Submission is Your Witness Sometimes we think things would be easier if God would just show us the blueprint for a good life. God, please tell me what to do to follow You with minimal drawbacks and maximum adventure. What if He did that? And what if the template was the life of Jesus–His submission to His Father and then His submission to others? What if God just wanted you to t...

Built Different: How Our Identities Impact Our Communities  What do we do with rejection? What’s our answer when our hearts ask, “Am I ok?” We all deal with some form of insecurity, especially as we live in a world that pushes viewpoints contrary to God’s word. So what do we do? How do you live differently in a society that says, “You aren’t enough unless you do this…unless you own that?” And how...

What’s So Good About the Good News? An Interview with Greg and Susan Finke Hey, friends! Have we got a show for you today! We were blessed to have a conversation with our good friends, and mission mentors, Greg and Susan Finke. We talked about loving our neighbors so that they actually know they are being loved, telling our stories, and taking time to be curious about the people around us. We hope...

Where Do I Start? It’s been a minute, but we are back! And we are in 1st Peter as we discuss our starting point for walking as God’s people in the midst of a culture that doesn’t see things the way we see them.  How do we navigate suffering? How do we love the people around us, especially when they don’t meet our expectations? How do we keep our focus on the important things? Peter gives us direct...

Stories, Social Media, and The Good Shepherd: A Chat with Monica and Lauren Hey, friends! Last episode we finished our series on The Lord’s Prayer, and today we really thought we would dive into 1st Peter 1. However, we didn’t quite get there. But that’s ok because we were super busy talking about other important things. So if you are looking for an episode that dives into the complexities of rejo...

We see it depicted all around us, sometimes in the form of a bright red apple, a devil on the shoulder, or a group of young, attractive singles stranded on an island. But what does temptation really look like? And how can we live out the prayer, “lead us not into temptation,” when it feels like temptation is embedded in so many of the decisions we make every day? We talk about that and so much mor...

Bringing Things Into the Light Hey, everyone! We are back in the Lord’s Prayer today looking at a section that might cause us to pause. After all, if we are asking God to forgive us like we forgive others, doesn't that put us on the hook to, you know, forgive?  We have a lot to unpack today. Like how confession really is good for the soul. And how confession and forgiveness both play a vital...

Paul, Timothy, and Women in the Church  Today we step away from the Lord’s Prayer to discuss a topic raised in Monica’s missional community. Essentially, what do we do with 1st Timothy, chapter 2? There are plenty of Bible passages that make us squirm in our modern sensibilities, and when Paul writes to Timothy about the rules for women in worship we can be tempted to write it off as irrelevant fo...

Daily Bread: Table Talk Edition We are all growing, but the real question is: in which direction? Justin Whitmel Earley’s book The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction is our starting point today as we continue our discussion on daily bread.   Daily bread isn’t just something we receive; it’s something we share. It’s a “give US this day…” thing. And there is a word for that–hos...

All the Small Things  We all have those times when things get chaotic. When we have so much to do and so little time. When it seems that everything that can go wrong, will. They even have a name for it: Murphy’s Law.  But our lack of control is just what we need to recenter our attention on the One who enters our lives daily to take care of us. He plants us next to each other to help us take care...

A Good King and a Great Adventure Hey, friends! We are back in the Lord’s Prayer today because it really is a practical daily prayer. Also, we have a bunch of questions, like: What does it mean to keep God’s name holy in my day-to-day life? How can I see God’s kingdom here today, and actually live in it? How is God’s kingdom the antidote for all my anxiety? Is excessive knee-jerk volunteerism a th...

A Dad Better Than Your Dad Throughout time, people have had their ideas of what God looks like. What is His character? What does He think of me? And then Jesus steps on the scene and tells His disciples to call God “Father”. Jesus reveals the character of God the Father and we see something scandalous; we see that God is close. He is familiar. This holy God, whose name we hallow, comes near. So th...