Abundant Gifts

The roads were icy, so I looked down as I trudged along on my usual morning walk.

Our roads are a mess here. Many cracks, many potholes. This snowy, icy winter has added even more damage.

As I walked, I suddenly stopped.  Something caught my eye.

The shape of a particular crack arrested me. It looked just like …  a heart!

Our newspaper recently did a photo story on heart shapes in nature. God’s hidden messages–hidden except for those with the eyes to see.

Here was another heart shape, symbol of love. But not in the natural world. In the world humans made, in the road made up of asphalt and dirt and salt.

It’s not so difficult to believe God’s love shows up in the natural realm. But in the world so marred by both human and natural affliction–can we expect to find God’s stamp of love?

Yet, here it is. Here in the broken road is a symbol of love.

It made me think of a verse in Jeremiah 18. “This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ‘Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.’ So I went down to the potter’s hour, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him” (verses 1-4).

Here we are, going along the road of life, and Continue Reading »

I got word from Compassion International that the area in Haiti where my child, St. Hilaire Germima, lives was “moderately affected” and no deaths reported. Thank God! And thanks to all who prayed for this dear child and her family. I am so relieved they are as safe as can be expected under the circumstances. There were only minor damages to the Child Development Center in that area. I still can’t send letters, but I can pray! And that’s most important.

Please continue to pray for relief work in Haiti, and for St. Hilaire and her family. Again, I am impressed with Compassion. Check out their blog for what they’re doing and how they do it. You can donate to the Haiti earthquake relief effort here, and any gifts before March 1 can be claimed as a tax deduction on your 2009 taxes. (Yes, it’s that time of the year again.)

And thank you to those who helped me raise funds for Haiti through getting some of the publishing coach products I put on sale . Your reward will be an everlasting one, and I can’t help but think you’ll also be blessed with what you do with what you bought.

For all my working life, starting when I graduated college, I’ve sponsored a child in Haiti with Compassion. In January 1990, I even had the privilege of visiting my child (a different one than I currently sponsor), along with author Janette Oke, Compassion President Wes Stafford, and others. It was an unforgettable trip.

Perhaps the most moving moment was when we walked up to a group of people worshiping under a large tree, by a river. (There are few trees in Haiti; most of the foliage has been cut down to use for fuel.)

One of our sponsors said that she wanted to sponsor a child from someone in that group. Somehow we connected with an old woman who, when she discovered what we planned, burst into tears, then smiles. She explained, through our translator, that she had just a few moments before prayed for her granddaughter to somehow be taken care of.  To this woman, we were God’s answer, dropped from heaven straight to her.

As you can imagine, I have been very concerned about the child I sponsor, Saint Hilaire Germema, who turned 12 on December 5. I received a letter recently from Compassion, but nothing specific.

Please join me in praying for Saint Hilaire Germema, her family, Compassion International, ministries in Haiti, the relief efforts, and of course, the people of Haiti.

I saw a news clip on Sunday showing Continue Reading »

Happy New Year!

One of the highlights of Christmas this year also sheds a little light on what I think we can expect from God in the coming year.

It was my son’s gift to his sister.

David loves to give gifts. I’m sure it’s his “language of love.” For Mother’s Day, he bought me a wonderful digital camera. This Christmas, he bought Christine an ipod.

I think what he loves most of all is the look of surprised joy when the recipient opens the present: “You bought this for ME?!”

That’s probably why he wrapped Christine’s ipod in a very special way. Knowing she would immediately guess if he just wrapped the package it came in, he put it in a bigger box. Wrapped it. Then he put that into a very large box and wrapped it (all by himself, I might add).

Yes, she was surprised–and joyful.

I can’t help but think that God likes to Continue Reading »

Soft whiteness

Falling from the sky

Changes barrenness to beauty

Covers potholes, cracks, scars

with peace.

Just like the grace

That fell from the sky

To be born in a stable.

I love this season, with all the celebrations that lend meaning to our lives!

So here’s a quick note to wish you a most blessed holiday season:

• A Hanukkah full of new light that continues to illuminate your world …
• A Christmas overflowing with the gifts only the Savior can give …
• A new year blessed with all the things that make your heart sing …

And I invite you to sit back and listen to one of my favorite Christmas stories from my book,  Abundant Gifts. It’s called “The Lord’s Presence Passing By” and I think you’ll like it.

Master Leaders: Revealing Conversations with 30 Leadership Greats by George Barna with Bill Dallas

On Thursday, December 10, I conducted a Virtual Book Tour with George Barna on his new book, Master Leaders: Revealing Conversations with 30 Leadership Greats. I invite you to listen to the replay (if you don’t have a question, feel free to write “none” in the box).

I grilled George on the most-asked questions about leadership, and his answers were based not only on his own insights, but on the insights gleaned from these 30 other leadership greats.

For instance: Ken Blanchard, Tony Dungy, Newt Gingrich, Henry Cloud, John Ashcroft, Colleen Barrett, Seth Godin, San Chand, Mike Huckabee, Laurie Beth Jones, Patrick Lencioni, Ben Carson … the list goes on.

If you’re a leader of any type, you’ll be fascinated by what George Barna learned from these top leaders. Sign up to get a free sample of the book and listen to the replay. There is also a very special bonus only those who listen to the VBT will know about (and it’s a limited time offer).

George Barna is Continue Reading »

This Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for so many things. However, as I reflected upon what I’m most grateful for, I’d have to say one thing: the Holy Spirit.

It simply blows my mind on a daily basis that God actually dwells inside those who welcome Jesus into their hearts, that center of our being that contains everything we are and that is, I believe, the “place” where we meet God.

It is truly Jesus with us, as promised in John 14.

The Holy Spirit, as God’s actual presence, does so much for us. He makes Jesus real. He comforts. He guides. On a daily basis, he guides my steps in many ways: by opening up God’s Word and making it real and applicable to me. (I never cease to be amazed at how living the Bible is. If you want a taste of what I discover, sign up for Abundant Gifts from the Word, my free email daily devotion.) I can’t tell you how often I hear some message several times over a period of a few days–perhaps through the Bible, and then something I hear on the radio, or something I read in an email, or even a piece of music.

God speaks in so many ways (I wrote a whole book on it, in fact: Knowing the Voice of God), and it is exciting to hear his voice speaking to me. But it is the Holy Spirit speaking, leading, healing.

So this Thanksgiving, I thank and praise God for the most amazing gift: the Holy Spirit, the Source of all else that’s important.

Permit me this rant. See if you can find a common denominator.

OK, so I get an email from Facebook saying, “You haven’t been back to Facebook recently. You have received notifications while you were gone.” (Naughty me!)

So I click on the link. Ask trusty Roboform to fill in the password etc. Didn’t work.

Strange. It always did work. It worked on Tweetdeck.

So I click around some other ways and FINALLY get into Facebook. (Somehow, don’t ask me what finally worked.)

So, where are these friend requests? Not a clue. I click Friends and see I have some Suggestions. I click on some people I know I’d like to be friends with. Every time I click, I have to

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“Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”–2 Corinthians 9:7, NIV

I’ve been told that the proper translation for “cheerful” in this verse is “hilarious.”

I thought of that today as I was paying bills.

It was a task I’d been putting off a couple of days because right now, there seem to be a LOT of expenses. Seems like “education” even for public schools is a bigger and bigger piece of the budget. Not to mention, I now have a child in college (who thankfully did get a major scholarship–provision!).

When I finally knuckled down and wrote the checks, I also wrote one for our church and the ministries we support. I thought about “hilarious giving.”

It seemed to fit.

As in:

“Get ahold of this. I wrote a check for my church, which brought my bank account to zero. So I said,

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