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 | Apr 22, 2011 | Easter, grace, knowing God, living God's truth, pilgrimage
Nighttime desperations… Inclinations of the mind, heart, and soul that bend in the opposite direction of God’s peace as darkness begins its descent upon a day’s worth of doing. Hidden agendas that bury beneath the brilliancy of the sun’s witness but that overtly and...
by Elaine Olsen | Apr 5, 2010 | Easter, family fun, grace, living God's truth
The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure...
