Blogs for Christian Living
Read some devotional thoughts from prior church planters & lifelong pastors. Mark & Dallas share what they learn daily in their journey walking with God.
Be inspired to live in the fullness of purity that God has set as the standard for His children. Be encouraged to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and the implications of living in relationship with God.
When I was younger, we used to say, “Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day.” Of course, if we could keep sending the rain away because it was inconvenient, there would be catastrophic results. Elijah’s story Consider the story in 1 Kings 17-19. The rain stopped and would not return until Elijah commanded it to do so. In the season of drought, the Lord provided for Elijah by telling him to move and reposition near a ravine. In this place, God provided food and water. However, after a time, the stream dried up, and Elijah had to reposition again. God sent Elijah to a town and arranged what I…
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There’s a Rich Mullins song, “Sometimes by Step”, that I often get running in my head on my journey with God. Part of the chorus says, “Step by step You’ll lead me, and I will follow You all of my days.” This describes much of our life. We don’t know too many steps ahead, sometimes just one next step at a time. In June, I went for a hike with my kids on the Rainbow Trail in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. In the past, a six mile hike along the Rainbow wouldn’t be difficult for me or my dog, Ginger. If you’ve followed my blogs for a while, you’ve…
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Many refer to April 1st as April Fool’s Day and plan practical, and sometimes not so practical, jokes and pranks. We prefer to think of it as just another day in our journey with the Lord. This April 1st, we were closing up the trailer and starting our several thousand mile trek across the country. The plan was to make it to Magnolia, Arkansas this day. Before heading out, Mark was checking the air pressure in the trailer tires and, in his normal way, was conversing with the Lord. “Lord, I don’t really know the history of these tires. I don’t know how old they are, how many miles they’ve…
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When I was younger, we visited Heritage Park in Calgary, Alberta. There were parts of the park that I really enjoyed and others that I didn’t. I loved the old time candy store and ice cream shop. What kid wouldn’t? I didn’t love experiencing the sod shack/mud hut by stepping inside. I found it stuffy, closed in, and dark. It made it hard to breathe. Fast forward many years…Now, I have my own mud hut, which I share with Mark and our dog, Ginger. Not How I Roll Mark and I spent a period of time homeless and couch-surfing at the onset of founding Blue Fire Legacy. Numerous generous friends…
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There’s a story in the Bible about a man named Balaam. You can read the entire story in Numbers chapters 22 through 24. I’ll give you a brief summary. Balaam was not an Israelite but was a prophet who had some connection with God. A king hired Balaam to curse Israel. God told Balaam not to go, then to go, then on the way opposed his going, then said to go (gets a bit confusing). Balaam’s donkey spoke to him (not your everyday occurrence). Instead of cursing Israel, Balaam spoke blessings over God’s people. Don’t beat the donkey The first lesson that I’m learning from this story is that when…
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I have a small flashlight that sits on the corner of my desk. It’s easy to grab, and located fairly centrally in the trailer. When needed, it will pierce the darkness or illuminate a dark cabinet, so I can see as needed. But there is something about this flashlight that is required to make it work. Batteries. WIthout the batteries inside, it’s just a plastic and metal shell that isn’t worth anything. The power source God chooses us to do His work, bringing light into the darkness of this world. We often think that we are capable of accomplishing great things. And yet, without the power of the Holy Spirit…
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Recently, the Lord was talking to me about feet. I looked up verses regarding feet, direction, walking, paths, etc. One of the passages I read was Psalms 37:23-24 (ESV). The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand. I shared with a few others that the Lord is the One Who directs us and establishes us. However, in order to be established by Him, we have to be willing to walk submitted to Him. We need to be able to follow His directions. One of my foibles is…
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A couple of decades ago, the forests of Colorado began to be infected with beetles that were killing trees. The beetles are small, less than an inch in size. So small that it would seem unlikely they could take out such large trees and entire swaths of forest. Yet, over the years we have seen millions of acres of trees killed. The picture above is just a small example of the death and destruction left behind. We have seen a similar impact on the moral health of the country. The infestation began decades ago in seemingly small and insignificant ways. The church has even embraced many of these changes thinking…
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Wednesday was a hard day. I struggled from the moment I awoke. After spending a night of tossing and turning, I could hardly bring myself to look at my phone. While I wanted to check the time, I didn’t want to be greeted by unwanted news. The day before, we were informed that one of our friends had been life-flighted out of the valley due to a stroke. We immediately began to pray for him and his wife. Updates were limited and not very hopeful when delivered. After a day of appointments, which went well into the night, we went to bed pleading for a miracle, despite the doctor’s grim prediction…
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Most people see me as very confident. While I am fairly good at portraying this quality, I struggle with many insecurities. One that I have struggled with for decades relates to my qualification to be a minister. Over the years, I’ve been told numerous times that I shouldn’t be a pastor or vocational minister. Reasons given include, but are not limited to: my personality (I’m not outgoing enough), the fact I haven’t gone to seminary or Bible college, and I’m not a charismatic speaker. While all of these things are accurate about me in their factual statement, I dispute that they are valid reasons for disqualifying a person from being…
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