by Elaine Olsen | Feb 29, 2012 | dad, desert dwelling, Easter, Olive Press, pilgrimage
“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.” –Luke 4:1-2 The Lenten journey begins in the desert. It is the undiscovered country that invites us...
by Elaine Olsen | Feb 26, 2012 | Easter, Olive Press, pilgrimage
“In my Father’s house… ” –John 14:2 In my father’s house. A good place to edit a life. I went home to my father’s (and my mother’s) house this past week to do just that … some editing work. Their lives are less crowded than mine, less noisy and not...
by Elaine Olsen | Feb 22, 2012 | dad, Easter, Olive Press, pilgrimage
My father tells me that his earliest days of preaching were spent out in a cow pasture, admonishing the uncooperative beasts to produce more milk or else face the threat of eternal punishment. His technique was a bit rough around the edges, his message all the more,...
by Elaine Olsen | Feb 19, 2012 | Easter, Olive Press, pilgrimage, prayer, suffering
My heart is greatly troubled, stirred up and unsettled. Only God can untangle this one. Only God can bring order to confusion. Only God can make sense out of chaos. Only God can take what man has meant for evil and make it count for his eternal good. Only God. How...
by Elaine Olsen | Feb 13, 2012 | conviction, freedom, living God's truth, pilgrimage
“The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and...
