by Elaine Olsen | Aug 28, 2022 | church life, God's Word, knowing God, living God's truth, ministry life
Our Sunday School roster of teachers was down to slim pickings today. The regularly scheduled facilitator and her substitute were otherwise detained, and I offered to step in at the last minute. Attendance numbers were slim as well, but what we lack in quantity we...
by Elaine Olsen | Jan 4, 2020 | conviction, God's Word, holiness, Holy Spirit, hunger, living God's truth, truth
Christmas has cost me a few pounds. A recent doctor’s visit and my turn on the scale indicated this reality. Accordingly, upon my return home, I purged the remnants of my kitchen–those remaining crumbs of a recent, earlier delight. I had had enough of...
by Elaine Olsen | Mar 27, 2019 | God's voice, God's Word, knowing God, night visits
It’s 4:00 AM; I can’t sleep. A strained shoulder and a pack of prednisone are to blame. I’ve started and finished a 350-page historical novel that’s been sitting bedside for weeks. I’ve read the book of James. I’ve prayed over my family. I’ve shed a few tears. And...
by Elaine Olsen | Oct 1, 2016 | conviction, discipleship, fellowship with God, God's voice, God's Word, kingdom, living God's truth, ministry life, obedience, truth, words
My students and I have just finished reading Song of the Brook by Matlida Nordtvedt. As literary prose goes, it doesn’t measure up to the classics, but it does serve a purpose in our classroom. It’s one book in a continuing series of books presented annually to...
by Elaine Olsen | Jan 9, 2016 | fellowship with God, God's Word, holiness, living God's truth, words
Words. Spoken. Written. Thought. Some beautiful. Some bitter. And others, somewhere in between. All words? Powerful. Why? Because they are attached to the heart. “ … For out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks.” –Luke 6:45 The words that grow in our hearts,...
by Elaine Olsen | Dec 5, 2015 | God's Word, knowing God, Lessons from the Lunchroom, Scripture
“He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken” –Isaiah 53:8 Their words brought a chill to my bones, while at the same time...
