healthy faith Archives - Page 3 of 5

Follow Jesus – On the Way

Posted on August 25, 2014November 21, 2016 by Michael Rose

With a sincere desire to cultivate a deeper experience and relationship with God many folks are conditioned to ask the question “how.” How can I experience greater peace, joy and freedom in the Lord? How can I get a deeper sense of my relationship with Jesus in all of life? These are honest questions. Unfortunately,…

Power of Wonder – Secret to Deep Faith

Posted on August 12, 2014January 14, 2015 by Michael Rose

An often overlooked aspect of faith is wonder. When we talk about wonder we are thinking specifically about three postures; standing in disbelief, standing in the question itself and standing in awe or amazement of something. Wonder positions us to be open spiritually – this doesn’t mean non-discerning but an openness to learn, to…

Oh Father – Our Right of Prayer?

Posted on November 19, 2013August 25, 2020 by Michael Rose

There was a bit of controversy in our small country town. One of the public elementary school’s staff and students have been starting each school day by reciting the Lord’s Prayer – until the school administration received a letter from a mom describing herself as agnostic, expressing concern that on two separate occasions, her sons returned home after…

Judge Less. More Filling.

Posted on August 16, 2013August 31, 2016 by Michael Rose

“Judge not lest you be judged” are haunting words for me. I am coming to realize that a constant problem of the human creation is the propensity to judge others. I think there are a variety of reasons for this but for our purposes here, suffice to say it is the natural consequence of…

Love Wins (1 Cor. 13:8)

Posted on May 22, 2013September 13, 2016 by Michael Rose

I am amazed how the perfect love of God works in and through His good creation but have been surprised at the reaction of some folks. These sincere people get concerned that when we talk about love, it must be at the expense of truth. They suspect love is different than truth as if the truth…

Where’s Waldo?

Posted on January 29, 2013September 7, 2014 by Michael Rose

One of the richest things for me the past while has been learning to see God in all things. I have to admit some days I am blind as a bat and finding God in some things is like a brutal "Where's Waldo" puzzle. If you have ever seen a Where's Waldo you know these…

Underestimating the Love of God

Posted on December 13, 2012December 16, 2014 by Michael Rose

Have you ever become so familiar with something – an idea perhaps – that as good as it may be, it seems to become like the old comfortable bathrobe that you take for granted? A few years ago, I was driving from one community to another listening to one of my all time favorite singer-song…

A Terrible Case of the What if

Posted on September 15, 2012April 23, 2017 by Michael Rose

Last night, while I lay thinking here, some What ifs crawled inside my ear and pranced and partied all night long and sang their same old What-if song: What if I’m dumb in school? What if they’ve closed the swimming pool? What if I get beat up? What if there’s poison in my cup? What if I start to cry? What if…

Free Indeed

Posted on September 4, 2012September 5, 2014 by Michael Rose

In this audio reflection, Michael leads us through some thoughts on John 8:33-46. Jesus is speaking about freedom and the fact that His words are truth and bring freedom. Jesus contrasts this with sin and lies which bring slavery. Often times we believe lies about ourselves or a situation, and these lies (that may have…

Success is …

Posted on July 22, 2012July 11, 2018 by Michael Rose

Money, fancy cars, big homes, power, and fame – We all seem to hold certain cultural ideas of success. However, throughout various stages of life, in practical terms, our ideas of success changes. I came across this short story and in a silly way it speaks to our ideas of what exactly success is over a…