Jesus was amazed by the lack of faith that his own closest people—his neighbors, his fellow synagogue members, his very own relatives in Capernaum—expressed about who He was and what miracles he could (or couldn’t) do.

Jesus said to them [to the Jewish people in his own hometown snynagogue], “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith.

Mark 6:4-6

Jesus was amazed by the faith that a gentile, Roman centurion expressed over Jesus’ ability to heal. The centurion’s amazing faith moved him to believe that Jesus only had to proclaim the healing (only had to say the word)—Jesus didn’t even need to come to the centurion’s home—for his servant to be fully healed.

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him [at the Roman centurion], and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 

Luke 7:9

I’ve gotta ask myself: Do I amaze Jesus with my faith OR with my lack of it?  What about you?

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

Mark 6:31

 The Lord of Heaven and earth, the Lord who made everything we know and experience, is the Sovereign LORD who is high and lifted up. And this LORD is, at the same time, intimate with us beyond our imaginations.

 And in His sovereign, intimate love, our Lord Jesus invites you and me to come with Him. Come with Him to a quiet place. Come with Him to get some rest.

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to take Jesus up on His invitation! Right now.

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

You have made known to me the path of life..Psalm 16:11

Jesus spoke it clearly when He said,

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

We who have trusted and accepted Jesus as our Savior have had our eternity destiny changed from hell to heaven. And because of this, we have a peace and a joy and a sure hope that can only come from the Spirit of the Living God.

But we don’t always have those same feelings about, or in, our daily-day lives because of changing circumstances that can bump us around, confuse us, shake us, anger us, wear us down. This life can be hard. And our circumstances can go from one extreme to the other.

But God doesn’t change. God loves us. God is ever-present with us. God is good. God is just. God is mighty. God is kind. God is faithful. Our circumstances do not determine God’s character—although we often determine that God is good when things are good for us…and we determine that God is unfair, distant or not faithful to His promises when things are hard for us.

If we are God’s children through faith in Jesus and we have trusted God with our eternal destiny, how much more do we need to trust Jesus with our daily-day lives! Really trust the One who is the way and the truth and the life. God has made known the path of life for us for eternity and for today…every day. The path of life is Jesus. And we need to stay with Him, we need to listen to His Word and His Spirit…we need to trust Jesus.

We will take wrong turns. But turning back fully to our Jesus will redirect us—make known to us, once again—the path of life.

If we don’t know the way on unfamiliar roads, many of us will use a  GPS system…and trust that little machine to get us physically to where we need to go. How much more we should trust Jesus who not only can show us the way—even when we take a wrong turn (or several)—but is Himself the way!

Jesus is the path of life! Let’s choose to trust Jesus and walk in and with our Lord through everything…everyday! And as we do, we will have a peace and a joy and a sure hope that can only come from the Spirit of the Living God…no matter what our circumstances are!

Let’s trust Jesus! Jesus is the path of life! Jesus is God’s own GPS for us!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praise.

Psalm 101:1

Let’s allow our minds, hearts and spirits to really slow down enough so they can wrap themselves around these words of Scripture. Is the LORD’s love and justice so evident, so eternally certain to you…to me…that we can, and do, sing about it??

Are we able to sing of, and praise our LORD for, His love and justice when there seems to be little, if any, love or justice in our own life experiences? Or in the often hurting and hurtful world around us?

…and if YES, then, we need to asks our selves: When and How will we sing praises of the love and justice of our LORD? 

As to When? This is a good time. Right now. In these moments.

As to How? With a thankful, sincere and humble awe of who God is. With great joy as we acknowledge God’s eternal love and justice to us. With deep and overflowing gratitude for God’s love and justice that never weaken, never get twisted, never warp, never fail us in any way!

So! Make a list…share it with God…share it here (in the comments) or with a friend…but just start singing and start praising our LORD for His perfect love and His holy justice!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Psalm 32:7

Do you ever just want to run away and hide? Hide from all the pressures of life…people…responsibilities? I do. At least, sometimes.

But, then, God reminds me that often my feelings of wanting to run away and hide come as a result of my own skewed thinking that believes (or at least acts as if) I’m more in control than I truly am…or that I am somehow more important or more powerful than I truly am. Or my feelings of wanting to run away and hide may come because I think something that I am suffering is unjust and  unfair…and I just plain don’t want to deal with it—whether it is an illness or a death of someone I love…or a heart-breaking, confusing personal relationship…or a job market which offers no real security and very little financial stability.

Many circumstances and relationships may make us want to run away and hide because of the amount of sheer pressure we feel. And getting away from the stress—or at least some of the stessors—for some of the time can be a very good and wise thing. 

But! How good and peaceful, strengthening and renewing is the truth that our God is our Hiding Place.  No matter what trouble may surround us or come full force into our lives. As God’s loved and precious children, we don’t ever need to run away…we just need to run into the arms of our ABBA.

There we are protected from all that would threaten, hurt and destroy us. In our ABBA’s arms we can hide. In our ABBA’s arms we can rest quietly, right in the midst of turmoil, and sing songs of deliverance with awe, joy and thanksgiving. Because we trust the love we know in our ABBA’s arms.

No matter what you may be going through, or what you may want to run away from and hide, remember to run to the true source of peace, strength and renewal. We each need to choose to run into our ABBA’s arms…run to our God who is the Hiding place for our very souls.

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Galatians 2:20

Let’s make this personal…God did.

Because of His unfailing, pursuing, passionate love Jesus, God’s holy and perfect Son, gave His life for me.

Because of His absolute and extravagant humility Jesus obeyed His ABBA even to the point of choosing to die a cruel and shameful death for me.

Because of His incomprehensible, almighty power Jesus rose from the dead and conquered sin and death…and Jesus offers to live in me so that neither sin nor death will ever have any more power over me or my life. Ever again.

Jesus has put His Spirit within each of us His children, within each of us His followers. And the Spirit of Jesus wants to take up a whole lot more elbow room in our lives so that we will more truly and authentically reflect the unfailing, pursuing, passionate love of Jesus…the absolute and extravagant humility of Jesus…and the incomprehensible, almighty power Jesus! 

This is how we should be known and seen. This is how we should live—think, speak and act.

Let’s make this personal…God did.

Let’s each choose to allow the Spirit of the Living God to live in us with a whole lot more elbow room!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

The disciples asked Him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” 

John 6:28-29

Foundational, essential, primary to doing anything, any work, that God requires of us—to doing anything that connects us in a righteous and intimate relationship with God—is to believe what God has already done: He has sent Jesus Christ to this world to do the work that only He could do for us.

Jesus has died for our sins. Jesus has risen from the grave. And Jesus offers us complete forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Him…starting right from the moment we believe what He has done…starting right from the moment we believe the work of God that Jesus has accomplished for us.

Believe God. This is what God wants of us. Know Him. Know what He has done for us through sending Jesus. And in believing in Jesus we will know that any other works that God has for us to do, are works that are not required for our salvation but rather are evidence of our relationship with our Holy God.

But here, in this beautifully, simplified, profound statement, Jesus makes it clear that the only work that is required of us is to honestly believe in Him as our Savior, believe in Jesus as our Lord. From this place of sincere belief—from this place of an intimate, restored, powerful relationship with God—all other works that we do to live out our faith in God will (should) flow out of, and be reflective of, this foundational, essential, primary—required—work: believing in the One God has sent.

Maybe you already believe in Jesus as your Savior—THANKS BE TO GOD! Maybe this message is just to be an encouragement, remembrance and re-focus for you. Life is not always easy…there’s a lot of work, a lot of pressure…and Jesus wants to remind you that the most important work that could ever be done in all of eternity has ALREADY been done for you: You have been given life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! THANKS BE TO GOD!

Maybe, though, you have never yet believed in the One God has sent. Maybe today, this moment, is the time for you to make this choice…to believe the message of Jesus and receive the salvation and eternal life that comes through Jesus Christ alone.

HOW? Ask Jesus, even now, to be your Savior. Let God know that you believe that Jesus is His Son who died for your sins and rose from the dead to give you eternal life.

God loves you so much. Your Heavenly Father wants you to hear and believe; God wants you to be set free from the power of sin and the judgment of death.

God wants you to know the total forgivess that Jesus alone offers and the hope and joy of eternal life with the Sovereign and Holy God of all creation!

Believe. And thank God for hearing your confession of faith in Jesus as your Savior. Tell someone about your decision to trust in Jesus for your forgiveness and eternal life!

You have entered into a relationship with the Eternal God through this foundational, essential, primary—God required—work: believing in the One God has sent.

Welcome Home, precious one, Welcome Home!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name.

Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits—

who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,

who satisfies your desires with good things

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Psalm 103:1-5

O my soul! How good and right…how refreshing to our minds, our hearts, our bodies and our souls…it is to REMEMBER, actively and intentionally, All the gifts of love, mercy and strength that our LORD gives to us!

Let’s each take time to read God’s Word, again, in this passage above. Let’s take time to personally invite our souls…our inmost beings…to Praise the LORD and Remember All the life-changing, destiny changing, love gifts our LORD has given to us!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him; for He knows we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.

But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children’s children—with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts.

Psalm 103:13-18

Wow. Who God is…what God’s character is…and the hope of eternity in God’s love—in God’s legacy of love—are so succinctly expressed here.

God is a compassionate Father…for those who fear Him.

God is perfect and eternal and, yet, knows and understands our frailty and mortality.

God’s love is from everlasting to everlasting…always present, never ending…for those who fear Him.

God promises, that for those who fear Him, we can trust that God’s righteousness will be with our children’s children.

God offers all of us His amazing life changing love now…and His legacy of love for all eternity…for all who are His children by faith and have a holy and true fear of the LORD.

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Hebrews 13:8

How thankful I am that our God, our Holy LORD, our King Jesus is always the same. How thankful I am that our God, our Holy LORD, our King Jesus never changes.

Because our world and our circumstances do not stay the same…our world and our circumstances change.

Sometimes in wonderful, exciting, adventurous ways. And sometimes in shocking, frightening, helpless ways.

Today, September 11, 2009, marks the eighth anniversary of horrendous acts of terrorism and the murder of thousands of innocent people in NYC, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.

Many of us feel the loss of loved ones directly or love someone who has been directly affected by this evil. Others feel the shock and sadness caused from hatred and cruelty and a world that has changed instantaneously…without our ability to stop it.

And for a while, for many people throughout many nations and certainly here in the US, our world, our circumstances and even our priorities changed. Our sense of security in what was our known life was destoyed. Our sense of hope and expectation for what that beautiful, bright, sunny September day was to be were completely shattered.

Our only true security and our only unfailing hope are found in our unchanging God—in God’s love and in the salvation God offers through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our sins and the victory of Jesus’ resurrection for our eternal life.

Everything else changes.

How thankful I am that our God, our Holy LORD, our King Jesus is always the same. How thankful I am that our God, our Holy LORD, our King Jesus never changes.

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane