Pastor Tom's Community

How is it that a small word or two of encouragement can make all the difference in a person's day? One compliment can turn the tide for another person's day or week. One blessing softly and sincerely spoken can lift a downtrodden spirit. A brief prayer can evoke the release of a flood tide of…

How many long for a day when they felt more needed and useful? Others long for such a day in the future. We measure our significance by how much people need us. It is not that we are not to do the things that Job longed to do again. It is that our ability to…

Tiptoes Standing on tiptoe in expectancy. Living breathless in the wind. Waiting with expectation among the voices of boredom. Living above the storm … Hopeful … Hope.

Lives lived for others flourish and multiply in them. Lives lived only for ourselves perish with us. Let us live beyond ourselves.

He does not say, "Heal me because I am a good man," here. Nor does he suggest any qualities of his character to make him deserving. Rather he pleads his own sin as the reason he requests healing. It gives me hope. On that basis, I certainly qualify! " The LORD sustains him on his…

  In stormy times, one can expect storms to continue. In the eye of the hurricane, we ready ourselves for what is next. The pauses short, the respites, few. Our hands are braced, our muscles flexed. We ready our hearts for whatever's new. A storm is coming. Some sort of storm is welling up, building…

    "Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: “'Can a man be of benefit to God? Can even a wise person benefit him?What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous? What would he gain if your ways were blameless?'"Job 22:1-3 It is a good question. He answers it from a pretty limited perspective,…

  Father, as an under-shepherd of your flock, may I be willing to lay down and lay aside my life for the sheep. I am not sure what that means, but may I never abandon the vulnerable, the weak, the lame, the wounded, or the chronic wanderers. I will go where you lead me and…

We have to get from fainting away in unfulfilled longing to exhilarating praise It does not come with a finger snap, but it may come with a good night's sleep and a movement from one verse to the next. We look upon God. We behold. We experience His unfailing love. We praise. Keep moving through…

Writing is an excruciating joy. It is to be avoided at all costs, but one … … the horrifying option of not doing it at all … … and that is unacceptable.