Stephen De La Vega

    Christmas may be a little different this year. The Christmas season may always be hard for some of us, but this year that may be true for many more because 2020 was a difficult year, and Christmas may not seem so merry. Can we still “gather around” in joyful celebration, or will peace on earth fall short this year? This will be the first time in about 12 years my family will not enjoy a white Christmas…     Spending Christmastime in the snow, at a place fondly named God’s playground, has become a family tradition with us. Whatever we could do in the snow, we’ve done it over the years. We’ve also spent Christmas Sundays in our home church away from home, and Christmas Eves singing carols by candlelight in another favorite church. We’ve grown used to recalling the Christmas story while overlooking snow-capped trees and snow-covered mountains. This year COVID infections and the lack of available hospital beds forced us to shelter in place. We can’t leave the...

  COVID-19 hit us like a giant brick. Its presence changed the world. It disrupted our lives. Many of us were hit hard. How can our everyday normal be so overturned by something we can’t even see!? It’s my pleasure to introduce Alynda Long. She is an Energizer bunny …and a writer, blogger, editor, wife, homeschool mother, grandmother, graduate student, and, most importantly, Christ-follower. She endured a month-long battle against COVID-19, and she had never experienced a viral infection like this one. COVID-19 is a beast! But Alynda ‘kept on going’ as well as she could and she maintained a productive faith in God who is greater than this virus and in full control. I was encouraged by her story of victory as she suffered through the invasion of COVID-19 in her body and her household. It’s God’s story of victory, really, through Alynda’s faith, and I want to share it with you. Here is an interview with Alynda about her experience. Hi Alynda. Thank you for agreeing to tak...

  “Life is a mess.” “Things are spiraling out of control.” “We’re at our wit’s end.” “Nothing we’ve tried seems to work.” These are phrases we use when life becomes unmanageable. But we don’t usually express them as a nation, or worse, as a global population. Things got bad. We fight a pandemic. Its reach continues to haunt. We might hear the curve is flattening or trending toward healthy communities, but it doesn’t seem that way. We’re in this fight for a while. Racial injustice violates our screens and holds captive the tears and fears of all colors. We say enough is enough, yet it’s still not enough. We’re still at odds. It’s still us and them. We still perpetrate our agendas within our circles, our communities, and our societal systems. This is a letter to all of us who carry the banner of Jesus Christ. While we are eager for a new “normal,” have we spent enough time considering how God may be shaking us up for His greater purposes? Let’s reflect before we charge ...

We are fearful. Our hearts are heavy. We face real issues. There are legitimate threats – perhaps monumental threats. This is the current reality worldwide. The threat is pandemic. The fear is pandemic. We tremble at the face of genuine risk. How do we go on? Goliath was an obviously formidable opponent. One look. One listen. That’s all it took to accept defeat. That’s how it was for Israel’s army because they couldn’t see past the giant to see their God ( 1 Samuel17:4-11 ). We stand before Goliath Do we shrink in defeat         or do we rise with confidence in the LORD of hosts? David called God the “LORD of hosts” ( 1 Samuel17:45 ). This is like calling Him the God of armies. Israel was often defeated and they were ready for a victory. They were held captive as slave laborers for over 400 years. They wandered their way to the promised land for 40 years – 40 years longer than it should’ve taken! They ...