Prayer for Ukraine

Elizabeth Mitchell
2 Mar 2022
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ukraine

Scroll down to leave your prayer for Ukraine. “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone; and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:9-10) Dear Father, We acknowledge that you are supremely in control of all the world and realize we do not need to bring you up to date on what is occurring in Ukraine. We worship you for your sovereign rule over all the circumstances that seem […]

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Extension – A Pattern to Imitate

Elizabeth Mitchell
17 Jan 2019
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“And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, . . . so that you became an example to all the believers” (1 Thessalonians 1:6–7). Suppose they could actually speak to us, the characters described throughout the pages of Scripture whom we barely consider as we swiftly scan their stories. What would they say, what lines would they extend from their noble hearts to ours, these men and women whose lives brushed against the Savior when dust clung to his feet and wrinkles marked his robes? We usually learn from the familiar ones: Mary’s willing heart and Elizabeth’s blameless […]

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Giving Thanks and All That

Elizabeth Mitchell
13 Nov 2018
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“It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night” (Psalm 92:1–2). Some people might venture through their entire life without encountering someone they believed to be absolutely extraordinary. I am not one of those people. I want to tell you about a young man who falls smack dab into this distinguished category, who made a profound impact on the life of everyone in the brief time we were allowed to know him. Our son James was born with […]

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Bragging Rights

Elizabeth Mitchell
17 Oct 2018
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‘“Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.’ For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends” (2 Corinthians 10:17-18). They ooze out like sticky syrup, splotching conversation unnecessarily. Boastful words. Braggadocios challenges. Arrogant assumptions. Pride raises its puffed head and portrays pretentious imagery. Everyone discovers its nonsense, eventually. We are quick to speak of accomplishments, share where we’ve been and people we know, sort of. Photos depicting charmed lives elevate our status. We post and pose our perfect worlds as selfish pride points the camera on us; all […]

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Loves Me Loves Me Not

Elizabeth Mitchell
3 Aug 2018
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“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3 KJV). Lashes from one who should love us lacerate like sharp fangs. Rejection curls its snarling lips, extends its cavernous jaws and clamps down in the way a rabid wolf rips apart its prey. Sometimes the bite is a sarcastic slur; often it bears the mark of death in its grip. Joseph’s brothers knew how to bite so did a few of King David’s sons. Jacob […]

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Underwhelmed

Elizabeth Mitchell
25 Jul 2018
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“But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love…” (Nehemiah 9:17) They each blundered big under a varying set of circumstances. Eve reached for the fruit, Sarah handed over her maid, Moses slammed the rock, David hatched a deadly plot, and the children of Israel rebelled at the edge of the Promised Land. How might their stories have been different if their belief in the character of God was greater than their view of themselves? What might have occurred if they had elevated God’s righteousness above their own selfish rights […]

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Beautiful Applause

Elizabeth Mitchell
11 Jun 2018
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“She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mark 14:6). Their names are not even mentioned, and yet the Lord bestowed the highest praise on three women who demonstrated courage in difficult circumstances. Their ordinary lives are not memorials for us to simply admire, but to emulate, compelling us to love the Lord more deeply and trust him more completely right where we are today. We meet one woman as she entered Simon’s house in Bethany “with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table” (Matthew 26:7). Some of […]

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Step Ahead

Elizabeth Mitchell
1 May 2018
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“You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you…” (Deuteronomy 5:33). Babies do a lot of sleeping (When we desperately need some, they usually quit!). In the first few months of life, babies could almost be called couch potatoes, swaddled tight as a burrito, eating, sleeping and then sleeping some more. Children are altogether different, and their chubby legs are constantly on the move. Toddlers fall, get back up and fall again. They simply don’t mind. Children realize that in order to […]

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It Matters That they Lived

Elizabeth Mitchell
6 Mar 2018
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“Weeping may tarry for the night,” (Psalm 30:5) It matters that they lived, regardless how short the span. It matters on a scale of enormous significance that your friends’ loved ones drew breath for a wisp of time or for a lengthy chain of years. A life that was loved is worthy to matter to us, too. On every side people are grieving, and we are allowed entrance into that sacred space where breathing has become an unbearable task. When a small child leaves shattered parents or elderly saints cross the threshold of heaven, those left behind are devastated. For […]

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