Jesus is Waiting

February 17, 2026 Gracie

Jesus is Waiting

Christian camp

The first time I ever picked up and read the Bible was at – get this – a horse camp.

You just never know where God will first speak to your heart. 🙂

This week-long summer camp had a lot to offer – trail rides, archery, skill-building games, swimming, plus arts and crafts.

Although it was a Christian camp, I didn’t know much about what that meant at the time.

As a 6th grader and huge horse lover, all I wanted to do was get on a horse and go riding every day.

When the camp’s billboards went up around town, my next-door neighbor, her little sister, and I couldn’t wait to sign up.

“Camp week” couldn’t come fast enough.

One of the must-bring items on our packing list was a Bible.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have one growing up because I was raised in a different faith. So, I took the only religious book we did have at our house which was a book of Parables. Thankfully, my cabin leader had an extra copy of the Bible which she let me borrow.

Every night we attended a chapel service which included a rousing sermon and some singing.

At the end of the week, the service ended with an “altar call.” I had no idea what that was, but I was intrigued.

We were asked to close our eyes.

Through my admittedly, partially-closed eyes, I watched a few campers who had raised their hands be led off to a little room behind the stage.

What was that all about?

Part of me wanted to go there too because I was curious, but I held back.

After that fun-filled week was over, I returned home with a lot of questions about why we didn’t talk about Jesus more, but never got any real answers.

I didn’t realize it then, but God was speaking to my heart.

Jesus was waiting there for me, but I wasn’t ready to open that door just yet.

Jesus is Waiting: Have You Answered His Call?

Jesus is waiting

Fast forward to today, my love for horses is still there.

I think they are one of God’s most beautiful creatures. Little did I know how much a part they would play in my own embrace of true Christianity – through the good and the bad.

I never knew how much I needed Jesus until certain life events brought me to my knees.

¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need. – Hebrews 4:15-16, (NASB).

Praise the Lord now my faith, praise, and worship are dedicated to our one and only Savior.

Everyone’s faith journey is different, but without a doubt, I see the evidence of God working behind the scenes throughout my life.

If you haven’t yet given your life to Christ, Jesus is waiting for you.

It will be the best decision “of” your life, and “for” your life.

This song about seeking the Lord is one of my favorite praise songs.

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Our Exceptional God

Edge-Of-Your-Seat Christian Suspense

February 10, 2026 Gracie

Edge-Of-Your-Seat Christian Suspense Books

edge-of-your-seat Christian suspense books

On a cold winter day have you ever felt like curling up by the fireplace with a warm blanket and a good book?

Recently, with the cold weather (plus a significant ice storm), there was nothing I wanted to do more than just stay inside and be cozy.

As you know, choosing a good book to read is not always easy. There are many options in all genres to choose from.

Add to that you also have the choice between purchasing an e-book or a real book that you can actually hold in your hands.

Call me old-fashioned (thank you by the way), I prefer the latter. I’d rather physically turn a page than swipe a screen.

Anyway, I’m thrilled to say that I stumbled upon what has now become a new hobby.

Reading Christian fiction suspense novels.

Sound boring? Oh, I don’t think so 😊

I’ve become a big fan of bestselling author Alana Terry. Her books have captured my attention.

Currently, I’m reading “Leviathan Rising: Alaska-Based Christian Survival Thriller” which she cowrote with Scott Somers.

This book has me on the edge-of-my-seat!

Many of Alana’s faith-filled books cover current hot-button topics, and also notably, in my opinion the dialogue between the characters is believable.

Obviously, we have a choice on what kind of reading material we want to spend time with.

Christian suspense fiction

Spending leisure time reading a secular novel filled with bad language, explicit themes, or political rants doesn’t interest me at all.

No thanks. There’s enough of that junk on TV every day.

I highly recommend Alana Terry’s books to anyone looking for an edge-of-your-seat Christian suspense novel.

So far, I’ve finished “Save Me Once” and “Secluded.” Next is “Unplanned.”

Don’t say I didn’t warn you when you realize that her books are hard to put down!

Our Exceptional God

Finding Refuge During Life’s Winter Storms

January 27, 2026 Gracie

Impact: Finding Refuge During Life’s Winter Storms

Finding refuge in Life's winter storms

You know that a winter storm is bad when meteorologists use words like . . .

Significant impact

Historic

Colossal

Deadly cold

Treacherous travel

Those were just a few of the descriptions for our weather this past weekend (and in other states as well) as winter storm “Fern” blanketed parts of the U.S. with ice and snow.

Dangerously cold temperatures were enough reason for us to stay inside and pray for first responders who rescued stranded motorists on the highways.

Without a doubt, snow and ice can shut down a bunch of states within hours.

Pretty powerful ice crystals.

I searched for the word “snow” in the Bible and came across several verses including this one.

¹⁶He gives snow like wool;
    he scatters frost like ashes.
¹⁷He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
    who can stand before his cold?
¹⁸He sends out his word, and melts them;
    he makes his wind blow and the waters flow. – Psalm 147:16-18, (ESV).¹

The weather can change in an instant, for the good or for the bad, but God’s love for us is constant.

He is always good and a beacon for finding refuge during life’s winter storms.

The Psalms are where I turn when a storm rages outside.

Finding Refuge in God’s Word

Finding refuge

The reason that snow can even form in the first place is due to the intricate details with which God created the world.

Here’s a helpful explanation for non-scientists like us.

Snow is formed high in the clouds from water vapor, which is water in the form of gas. If a cloud is cold enough, the water vapor freezes to form ice crystals. At temperatures between about −40 °F (−40 °C) and 32 °F (0 °C), water vapor crystallizes around bits of dust in the cloud. At lower temperatures, water vapor freezes directly into ice crystals.

The ice crystals can stay up in the clouds. Or, if they are heavy enough, they can fall to the ground. As they fall they can clump together with other ice crystals to form snowflakes. – Britannica Kids,²

I’m sure you’ve heard that no two snowflakes are formed alike.

Why is that amazing?

Because it’s estimated that one septillion snowflakes “fall worldwide every year.” ³

One septillion. There are 24 zeroes in that number!

Only our God who rules over every season can do that.

¹⁶Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
¹⁷You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
you have made summer and winter. – Psalm 74:16-17, (ESV).⁴

Snow and ice storms can wreak havoc where they strike, but through God’s great love and mercy, He is our shelter during even the worst of it.

Turn to Him when you are fearful or anxious and in need of His peace.

He hears you.

Winter is here

²Quotation from Britannica Kids. Retrieved from “Snow,” n.d. para. 2. Web. Accessed January 26, 2026.

³ Snowflake estimate, [December 17, 2023] Courtesy of Britannica.com. “One Good Fact” Web. Accessed 26 January, 2026.

Our Exceptional God

Lukewarm Faith

January 20, 2026 Gracie

The Risk of a Lukewarm Faith

Have you ever tasted something so awful that you just wanted to spit it out?

For me, it was the barium prep for my CT scan.

I remember it all too well.

spit it out

The nurse handed over the bottle of barium and instructed me to drink it within a certain length of time.

Thank the Lord my wonderful husband was there to keep me on track.

The taste of that wicked brew was absolutely vile – like metallicized milk.

If I think about it too long, I can still taste it. Yuck.

No kidding, it took everything in me not to throw it up right there in a lobby full of other patients.

When something is that bad, naturally we’re disgusted at how offensive it is to the senses.

Speaking of disgusting (and for a more familiar analogy), think of “room temperature” black coffee.

There it is sitting on your kitchen counter.

Without thinking you drink a big gulp – only to realize it had gotten cold and you needed to spit it out.

Barium or lukewarm coffee – no matter – the vile taste of those conjures up a “simplistic” picture of disgust.

Yes, I realize that.

But, at the very least and for me, it prompts a serious reflection of one of the warning verses in the book of Revelation.

The reprimand comes from our Savior Himself.

Lukewarm Faith – Jesus Speaks

lukewarm faith

If you turn all the way back to Revelation, you’ll see how Jesus responded to lukewarm faith.

In the passage, He is referring directly to the church at Laodicea.

After reading it though, do you see how a lukewarm faith is just as offensive to the Lord today?

Check this out.

¹⁵‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. ¹⁶So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth. – Revelation 3:15-16, (NASB.)¹

Many people don’t like to face this, but you have to make a decision when it comes to faith and salvation.

There is only one way – thru Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Doing church” on Sundays and then bowing to the world the rest of the week is a recipe for peril when it comes to your eternity.

It’s obvious in the Bible that God doesn’t want lukewarm believers.

Let’s look at some dictionary definitions of “lukewarm”:

halfhearted

indifferent

wishy-washy

Is that how we respond to our Creator, our Sovereign God?

God’s only Son was sacrificed on the cross to save us from the sin-punishment that we all truly deserve.

How do we respond to that sacrifice and the saving grace of Christ’s resurrection from the cross?

Are we reflecting a “life transformed?”

Are we ready to stand up for our faith in a hostile world?

Which path do we choose?

Cold or hot, either way, a choice is made.

The deeds of the true believer will be “hot” or “cold”—that is, they will benefit the world in some way and reflect the spiritual passion of a life transformed. Lukewarm deeds, however—those done without joy, without love, and without the fire of the Spirit—do harm to the watching world. The lukewarm are those who claim to know God but live as though He doesn’t exist. They go to church and practice a form of religion, but their inner state is one of complacency. – gotquestions.org²

I believe this is something we should continually remind ourselves as we face the daily distractions that life (and the disturbing headlines) can bring.

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²Quotation from gotquestions.org, from “Why did Jesus speak so strongly against lukewarm faith? n.d., para. 5. Web. Accessed January 14, 2026. Retrieved from Jesus Lukewarm Faith

Our Exceptional God

Blessing in Disguise

January 6, 2026 Gracie

Could It Be a Blessing in Disguise?

Blessing in disguise

When you look back at the past year, was 2025 everything you had hoped it would be?

Were there any disappointments?

Who hasn’t had some, right?

We know that disappointments are just a part of life.

They just . . . happen.

But, have you ever considered that what you perceive as a “setback” may actually be something totally different?

Could your disappointment actually have been a blessing in disguise?

God works in ways behind the scenes that we will never fully know and understand.

That troublesome setback in your life could be a stepping stone to something greater – a deeper more trusting relationship with the Heavenly Father.

You may feel like a trouble-magnet at times, but please don’t ever forget that you are a deeply-loved child of the King.

We can rely on His goodness and mercy to always be there to carry us through any trial.

He has done it before, and He will do it again.

God is faithful.

Look to His Son Jesus, the most perfect embodiment of compassion reflecting the love of our Father.

This love the Father has for us is eternal, just as our praise and worship of Him should be.

David echoes this devotion in Psalm 145. This psalm is a powerful reminder to share our blessings with each other and with the generations to come.

⁵On the glorious splendor of Your majesty
And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.
⁶People will speak of the power of Your awesome acts,
And I will tell of Your greatness.
⁷They will burst forth in speaking of Your abundant goodness,
And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness. – Psalm 145:5-7, (NASB).¹

Pondering God’s Blessing in Disguise

In a recent blog post I mentioned that I followed the yearlong LIFT Daily Prayer from Pastor Jack Hibbs.

The introduction to the podcast for December 30 really struck a chord with me and I’m happy to share this as an encouragement for you for the year ahead.

As we stand at the end of another year, God invites us to step back from whatever is right in front of our noses and remember His wonders. Over the course of these months, there have been answers to prayer, protections we never saw, “coincidences” that were really His hand, closed doors that later proved to be mercy, and even painful seasons where He was present in ways we only now begin to recognize.
If we were to sit with a blank page and start listing His deeds toward us this year, we might think of a few at first—but the longer we linger, the more we remember, and we soon realize we will never come to the end of them. The problem is not that God has done too little, but that we too rarely stop to see, to name, and to thank Him for what He has done. – Pastor Jack Hibbs²

Thank you Lord for all of your blessings!

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²From Hibbs, Pastor Jack, “Lift Daily Prayer: Too Many Wonders to Number | December 30, 2035. YouTube Podcast.” Web. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/eSXzUDh7o60

Our Exceptional God

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