Tag: Hope

Feb192018 by Dale HeinoldNo Comments

Grow Roots

We all experience seasons in our life walk. Times of joy, times of despair, times of success, times of failure, times of brilliance, times of foolishness, times of hope, times of fear. However, unlike the seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter we rarely know what is around the corner; the joy or tragedy of our next step. We saw that sudden swing last week as Valentine’s day ended in tragedy at a Florida school. I’m not proposing a preventative that would always work. Neither am I railing against some flaw in our system. Instead consider this, what if the season of our life changed radically as it did for those students, teachers, and parents? Am I ready? Are you? The prophet Jeremiah held out two types of people. One type is those who trust in their own wisdom and strength t

Oct162017 by Kerry Rohman2 Comments

ABCs of Faith – Persevering Faith

Encouragment

Please welcome today's guest author Kerry Rohman. The season of detasseling has come and gone. If you live in the Corn Belt (midwestern part of the United States), you’ve at least heard the term. The youngsters that take on this feat describe it as “hard work”, “hot”, “early mornings” and “lots of walking”. Pretty descriptive, right? For those who don’t know about detasseling. This seasonal job entails removing the tassel (the pollen-producing flower) from the top of the corn as pollination control for seed corn. If you’ve ever seen a cornfield, you know there are lots of rows! Throughout the 3-4 week detasseling season thousands of acres are walked row by row in the July heat. If detasseling was easy, there would be lines of youngsters signing up for this summer job and the

Sep272017 by Dale HeinoldNo Comments

ABCs of Faith – Loving Faith

Encouragment

Have you ever rode a unicycle? How about a pogo stick? Or perhaps you have tried hopping around on one leg. All are doable but not the most stable things in the world. It takes great effort and concentration to maintain balance when there is only one point of contact. Faith works like that too. Focusing only on faith is like trying to ride a unicycle. The hard truth is that faith never stands alone. It is one leg of a comfortable and inviting chair. In a chapter that is often reserved for weddings, Paul describes love in 1 Corinthians 13. In those poetic words there is also a warning about faith. “If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2, NASB9

Aug232017 by Dale HeinoldNo Comments

ABCs of Faith: By Faith

Rooting Our Expectations

Encouragment, Hope

Expectations are tricky things. They can elevate our hopes to rarified heights, darken our fears, or land somewhere in between. We can even fear to hope lest that we somehow jinx our plans. For instance, when our daughter Rebekah was in High School, she refused to get excited about an upcoming mission trip to Mexico out of fear that her hopes would be dashed. I’m sure we’ve all been there at one time or another. We also have a set of expectations about God. Things we hope for or dare not hope out of fear of failure. Our expectations are often based on what we’ve seen or heard from the experience of others. But I propose that the root of our expectations needs a completely different source. One day early in Jesus ministry Philip was called by Jesus with the familiar “follow me.” Phili

Apr262017 by Dale HeinoldNo Comments

Walk Through 1st Peter – The Big Picture

Encouragment

In 1884 George Seurat painted A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. It’s a large work that is over six feet tall and 10 feet wide. The amazing thing is that it is painted completely in small dots of pure color. It’s a process that we are well familiar with but rarely think about. TV’s, computer screens, even our smartphones use a similar technique to create pictures filled with color and texture. As we approach our next step through 1st Peter, it’s vital that we keep the larger picture in mind or all we’ll see is confusing dots of color. Welcome to the 17th installment in our walk through 1st Peter. Today’s passage may seem a bit large and daunting at first. It may also seem a bit confusing and may seem to challenge well-understood theology of salvation and the resurrecti

Apr102017 by Dale Heinold1 Comment

A Better Me

Encouragment

What’s wrong with you? Come on, be honest. When you look in the mirror what would you change? If you could hold a mirror up and see your heart, your personality, your passions, and your attitudes – What would you change there? A friend of mine recently quipped, “I’d like a better me.” I think that we could all say amen to that. We all have things we don’t like about ourselves. It could be that our nose is too big. Our hair is graying. Or maybe it’s straight, and we want it curly. Or curly and we’d love for it to be straight. Some of these things we can temporarily change, many we can’t. Since I was a teenager I’ve had a malformed ribcage, basically my sternum forgot how to grow. So what about you? What would you change? Maybe your thing isn’t a physical attribute but something else l

Feb72017 by Dale HeinoldNo Comments

Walking Through 1st Peter: If…Then…So…Because

Encouragment

We are all familiar with the “if…then” formula. In many ways, our world is made up of “if…then” points. If I eat then, my hunger is satisfied. If I go to work and do a good job, then I will get paid. And if I get paid then I can have a roof over my head. The little bits of code that make your computer or smartphone work are built on programmed “if…then” statements. In our next step of Walking Through 1st Peter we encounter a powerful “if…then.” Welcome to our sixth installment of Walking Through 1st Peter. If you are just joining us or have missed the previous articles they can be found at Lambchow.com. In our last entry, Peter declared that we, as followers of Jesus, are to be (or become) holy. Immediately after that instruction Peter continues, “If you address as Father the One who i

Jan132017 by Dale Heinold1 Comment

Walking Through 1st Peter: A Living Hope

Encouragment

Not long ago our daughter’s family went on a vacation to Florida. Instead of enduring the seventeen hours of drive time they decided to fly. At the appointed time Asher, Eli, Mom, and Dad were all seated on the plane and ready to go. Four-year-old Eli clutched his favorite plush penguin while seven-year-old Asher looked just a bit nervous. Did I mention that the boys had never flown before? Then there was a bump as the plane pushed back from the gate. “Are we flying?” Eli asked. “Not yet,” Mom replied. The airliner turned and taxied a bit faster. “Are we flying?” Eli asked excitedly. “Nope,” Mom replied. Soon the plane lined up, revved up the jet engines and began to bolt down the runway. “Are we flying? Eli asked. “Not yet, you’ll know,” Mom replied as nearby passengers chuckled. A few

Nov82016 by Dale HeinoldNo Comments

Game Seven

Encouragment

I write this article knowing that it will be published on election day in the United States. Yet I also know that many, most, in fact, will read it after the election is over, and the results are known. This year’s Presidential election as been like a storm that just wouldn’t leave. It assaulted the senses and sensibilities. Long-established understandings and agreements were uprooted. It sucked the oxygen out of the room and seemed to be the only news that mattered. Only history will know if this was the pinnacle of the storm or if it will only get worse. And then we expereinced Game Seven of the World Series and were reminded that there is more to life than the drama of politics. Cubs won! I know that for some of Lambchow’s readers that won’t mean much so let me try a build a bridge i

Jul222016 by Dale Heinold1 Comment

Praying the Blues

Encouragment

There seems to be nothing in common between following Jesus and singing the Blues. The expectation for Christ followers is that we always are supposed to be happy. Happy, happy, happy. That even when things are dark we have a smile on our face and an answer for everything. But is that really being honest? The Blues, on the other hand, expresses sorrow, anxiety, and even depression. Those songs rarely have a happy ending and they don’t suddenly find an answer. Expressing the feelings of the moment is the power of the Blues. Believe it or not, folks sing and play the Blues because it makes them feel better. Now, before you think that I’m making some kind of weird connection for the sake of writing something consider Psalm 38. The writer says, “O LORD, rebuke me not in Your wrath, And chas

Mar42016 by Dale Heinold4 Comments

Just Say Yes

Encouragment

The man had been ill a long time. Thirty-eight years in fact. He had tried everything. Hoped that one-day a doctor, a priest, or someone would know how to fix him. But thirty-eight years is a long time. His chronic condition had worn his soul thin until there was only one small thread of hope left. To put it modern terms, he was hoping to win the lottery. That’s how unlikely his one last hope was. Discouraged and bitter he waited, there was nothing else for him to do. He saw others get better, win the lottery as it were. But no one took pity on him or helped him. So, alone in the crowd, he waited until one day someone walked up and asked, “Do you wish to get well?” The man’s answer to that question not only tells us about the condition of his heart but something about ours as well.