Joyce Rachelle's Blog

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I love my little sister’s English class.

Why? Because they let her write stuff like this:

Only one thing I can say here: this little girl thinks I’m such an influence in her life when the truth is, she’s the great influence in mine. Thank the Lord for younger siblings.

I have to go and grab some tissues now.

This story is a prologue to Wendell Mettey’s book, On Which Side of the Road do the Flowers Grow? – a compilation of true stories on life, love and loss, and one which I greatly enjoyed.

There once lived a very unhappy man who was a carrier of water. He hated carrying water and despised his master for giving him such a lowly job. “Carrying water is a job for women,” he complained. “It certainly is not a job for a strong and capable servant.” To escape the giggling and whispers of the women who g...

If your house were made of glass, would your private life be any different? If you knew that people were keeping track of every choice you made, every word you said, every little thing you did, how would it change the way you lived?

Integrity. It’s a rare commodity.

When I was about ten or eleven, I couldn’t make up my mind as to what exactly it was I wanted to be when I grew up, but I knew for certain what I did not want for a career, and [image error]that was teaching. That decision was for the sole reason...

Our spiritual life is exactly that: it is meant to be lived. This involves a healthy diet of Scripture reading, social interaction, gathering with other followers, communal as well as personal prayer, and so on. Try abstaining from church and you’ll see what I mean.

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” – Hebrews 10:24-25

The Lord can send all His best graces our way. But when we’re too busy for God, we’re no longer where we’re supposed to be.

Life plays subtle tricks on us: enticing us with a good promotion, an exciting new project, keeping us busy with work and hobbies, and even tempting us with limitless rest and relaxation. There’s nothing inherently bad about all of these, of course, until the blessing steals our hearts away from the Bless-er.

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world...

Depth of mercy! Can there be
Mercy still reserved for me?
Can my God His wrath forbear,
Me, the chief of sinners, spare?

I have long withstood His grace,
Long provoked Him to His face,
Would not hearken to His calls,
Grieved Him by a thousand falls.

I have spilt His precious blood,
Trampled on the Son of God,
Filled with pangs unspeakable,
I, who yet am not in hell!

I my Master have denied,
I afresh have crucified,
And profaned His hallowed Name,
Put Him to an open shame.

Whence to me this waste...

O long and dark the stairs I trod;
With trembling feet to find my God
Gaining a foothold, bit by bit,
Then slipping back and losing it.
Never progressing, striving still
With weakening grasp and faltering will,
Bleeding to climb to God, while He
Serenely smiled, not noting me.
Then came a certain time when I
Loosened my hold and fell thereby;
Down to the lowest step my fall,
As if I had not climbed at all.
Now when I lay despairing there,
Listen, a footfall on the stair,
On that same stair where...

In the fast-paced motions of life, it can be very easy to lose yourself. We don’t usually notice it but a new promotion, an added assignment, even an interesting hobby is all it takes to blur the lines between stop and go. Silence is as essential to living as the pauses in a musical score. If we design our schedules like endless notes following after one another without end, the melody essentially reduces itself into noise and all we get at the end of the day is a set of tired fingers.

And he sa...

I sat on my desk this Sunday listening to an online sermon because my schedule didn’t allow me to attend the service at my local church. And I’d like to share with you one of the major points in the message, because I believe that for many, if not all of us, it hits home:

“God can use the failures of other people to accomplish his purpose. Many of you are thinking people have messed up your life. Some of you are angry with people, there is unforgiveness, because they have wronged you, they have ...