Stephen De La Vega

  Leave your rifles in the rack. You won’t need them when the battle is insurmountable. Has anybody ever told you that? Sometimes we can go to battle without breaking a sweat or calling upon those heroes who are somehow larger than life. But, of course, we should call on the Almighty Hero. God will be our Hero when we let Him. This is the 3rd  post about kings and kingdoms within our larger series of New Years Resolutions based on every 20:24 and 20:25 verse in the Bible. Regarding kings and kingdoms, we first resolve to stand for God’s government . When we do so, we support His choices for who sits in office, and we ultimately trust and obey His commands. Then we are prepared to step forward, and follow Him through the highs and lows of life, including battles we can't win. We can remain committed to His plan despite any difficulty or hardship because our battles are God’s battles when we lean into Him. He will go before us and do the heavy lifting if we let Him, which is...

  2020 has been a year of change, difficulty, loss, and unrest. Thankfulness is not in that list, but we are thankful – we try to be, anyway – because God is our God. This post is an autobiographical review of the last several months and I express my gratitude for our God who never withholds His favor towards His people. It’s easy to trudge along and overlook Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving is always worth a pause. Will you join me in giving thanks to our loving God?   When COVID-19 hit hard, our IT team hurried to make working at home a reality for our busy public health department. We did it. We deployed significant successes. Though some employees still go to the office, we’ve become very capable in our homes. Many of us have different stories with financial hardship and loss. But God is our God. He favors us even when life is hard to bear. Thank you, Lord, for providing for my family and for meeting our every need. Thank you especially for nurturing us as we grow ...