Posted on by Lori Cartmell

What Can’t You Live Without?

You’ve heard it said that “man shall not live on bread alone.”

That’s absolutely correct. He also needs tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni.

As in pizza.

I’m pretty sure that I could live on pizza alone, and I’m willing to give it a try. Is there someone out there who wouldn’t mind providing me with a daily supply of freshly baked pizza?

(I’m just kidding, of course. Sort of.)

Joking aside, we’re missing something crucial here, and that’s the rest of the verse I quoted above:

“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Jesus in Matthew 4:4, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3)

Jesus seems to be telling us that the revealed word of God is every bit as important as the food we nourish our bodies with.

But do we really treat the word of God as being as essential to us as the food we eat each day?

Do we give Scripture as much thought as what we plan to cook for dinner?

Is reading the Bible more important than our mealtimes, or is it something we cram into our schedules if we happen to have the time?

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Who Loves You?

Photo from Pxhere

How many times today has someone told you that they love you?

If you have a loving family, you’ll probably hear them express their love for you frequently.

But what if your family ties are a bit strained? What if you don’t have many close relationships at all, and consider yourself to be fairly alone in the world?

Then you probably don’t hear the words “I love you” nearly enough.

There’s a remedy for that:

Open a Bible.

The unfailing love of God is a soundtrack that reverberates through the Scriptures.

It’s easy to find verses in the New Testament that exemplify God’s love:

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
“This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1 John 4:10)
And of course: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

But what about the Old Testament?

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

A Special Kind of Faith

Tulip bulbs at a flower market
Photo from Pxhere, Public Domain

They say that planting seeds is an act of faith.

I think that’s true: you put seeds in the ground in spring, hoping most will germinate and grow into a plant. If you’re lucky, you might see hints of growth in a few days, but often it can be weeks before a little green head pokes its way out of the soil.

If planting seeds takes faith, then I think it takes a special act of faith to plant bulbs in the fall.

In the fall, you know the days are getting shorter and colder. The leaves are dropping from the trees, and tender plants are beginning to die from early frosts. You know that snow will soon blanket the garden to the depth of a couple feet.

You’re heading into a barren season.

The precious tulip, daffodil, or hyacinth bulbs that you’ve just planted will disappear from your view for many months. You’ll have no indication that they’re all right, let alone any guarantee that they’ll eventually bloom. They may fall prey to rabbits, squirrels or deer. Who knows what will happen to them?

And yet you still go ahead and plant fall bulbs, trusting that they’ll survive the frigid winter and bloom later in spring.

Some things in our lives take special faith to trust for, too, don’t they?

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Fill Up Your Storehouse

Image by Alexa from Pixabay

This is a busy (and nutty) time of year for squirrels.

The little critters are hard at work storing up nuts and seeds for the hard winter ahead.

Depending on the species, they may either store their nuts in one spot (a stash), or hide them by burying them in multiple locations (known as “scatter-hoarding”). They’ve even been known to shamelessly steal nuts from the stashes of other squirrels.

The jury is out on whether squirrels actually remember where they’ve hidden all those nuts. Some studies suggest they can recall the location of thousands of buried nuts. Other research implies that squirrels fail to recover a good number of their treasures, which allows the nuts and acorns to grow into trees.

One thing is for certain: these little guys are single-minded about gathering up nuts before winter, often using unconventional places to store them.

Like cars.

Just ask Bill Fischer of Fargo, North Dakota. For the past eight years, a red squirrel has been using Bill’s pickup truck to store walnuts. Each year, the poor man has to remove thousands of walnuts from every crevice of his truck, including the engine compartment and bumpers.

The critter set a new record several years ago, stashing 348 pounds of nuts in Bill’s vehicle. And this was all the work of one tiny squirrel.

These crafty little animals might exasperate us, but we can learn something from them:

They make sure they’ve “squirrelled away” provision for hard times to come.

I think we should do something similar:

Store up the Word of God in your heart, because you never know when you might need a certain verse to sustain you in a tough situation.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

What Is Your Inukshuk?

Inukshuk Photo by Jsig9 on Pixabay

If you’re Canadian, you probably know what an inukshuk is.

If you’re not Canadian, then let me offer you my condolences. (Sorry! Just kidding!)

But seriously, as we Canadians celebrate our national birthday today, it seems apt to delve into the meaning behind this iconic symbol of the high north.

An inukshuk is a stone structure built by the Inuit and other peoples of the Arctic regions of North America. The stones may simply be stacked vertically, or they may take the form of a human figure.

The distinctive shape of the inukshuk is featured on the flag of Nunavut, a Canadian territory, and also served as the inspiration for the logo of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Inukshuks have been traditionally used by the Inuit people as landmarks for navigation, guideposts for travellers in a barren landscape. They might also mark out a sacred spot, or function as a commemorative sign.

I think we believers need “inukshuks” in our lives, don’t we?

Reminders of the things God has done for us, how far He’s brought us. Beacons to others travelling the same journey, showing them the path that leads to life.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Marinate in God’s Word

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Are you planning on firing up the grill to barbecue some meat this summer?

Many people believe the key to success is to marinate the meat beforehand.

When you marinate food before barbecuing it, more is going on than meets the eye (or the taste buds).

You’re doing more than simply soaking the food in a seasoned liquid to add extra flavour to it.

You’re actually changing its structure and making it yield.

Marinating tenderizes meat, breaking down tough connective tissues to make it more palatable. It also helps meat retain moisture, ensuring that the cooked meat will be juicy and not dry.

Marinades usually have a sharp, acidic ingredient, like wine, vinegar or lemon juice, or an enzymatic one, like yogurt of papaya. Herbs, spices and oils are added as well.

Whether you use a red-wine-based marinade for beef dishes, or a tangy yogurt-lemon one for chicken, your meat is guaranteed to turn out tender.

Likewise, when we meditate on God’s Word, or “marinate” in it, we’re doing more than simply adding Biblical quotations to our knowledge base.

As we absorb and internalize Scripture, it changes us and doesn’t leave us the same.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Dressing Up Animals

Image by Robledo Rafael Andrade on Pexels

Do you enjoy dressing your pet in clothes?

I won’t tell anyone if you do.

There’s something undeniably appealing about seeing animals in mini versions of human clothing, isn’t there?

(Your cat, however, might not agree.)

Even if you’re the type to roll your eyes at the idea of dressing up animals, there’s a lesson we can learn about this from the Bible.

Wait, what? The Bible mentions putting clothing on animals?

Yes, it does!

Let’s take a look at one of the more unusual stories in the Old Testament, found in the Book of Jonah.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

In the Shadow of His Wings

Image by Radovan Zierik from Pixabay

Sometimes there can be something very powerful right above you, and you’re not even aware of it.

I’ve found this out a few times while on a walk in a nature area.

I’ll think I’m totally alone: I don’t see or hear any other creature.

But then suddenly a large shadow will zoom across the path in front of my feet.

I look up to see what the shadow belongs to, and spot a majestic red-tailed hawk. He’d probably been circling above me the whole time, but he was so silent that I didn’t know he was there.

Recently, I came across two large, striped feathers on the ground. Their tell-tale markings told me they belonged to a bird of prey. Looking up into a nearby tree, I was surprised to see a hawk perched by its nest. I’d walked underneath the same tree many times before without realizing the nest was even there.

In each case, the bird had been right there with me, but I initially hadn’t been aware of its presence.

Similarly, sometimes we feel that God isn’t near us.

We can’t see or hear Him. We can’t seem to feel His presence in our lives. It feels like we’re alone in our struggles.

But there is something (or rather, Someone) powerful right above us, who promises to never leave us or forsake us. God’s children are never truly alone.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Stay With The Tried And True

Old family cookbooks of the author’s.

Do you have a collection of old family recipes or cookbooks?

Many of us are fortunate enough to have such treasures, lovingly passed down to us. They’re worth hanging on to.

The recipes might be contained in a cookbook, or written down on index cards and filed in a plastic or wooden box. They may be handwritten and neatly organized in a binder, or simply clipped from the newspaper and stuffed haphazardly into the pages of an old cookbook.

But no matter how the recipes are filed, there’s an easy way to tell which ones are the best:

The pages they’re on are a bit of a mess.

The best recipes probably have food stains on them, from when a cook referred to the recipe and absentmindedly pressed a finger, still wet with sauce or melted chocolate, on the page. Or the page got splattered when the cook was stirring the batter with a bit too much gusto.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Only Horoscope You’ll Ever Need

Image by Hermann Traub from Pixabay

What’s your astrological sign? Are you a Libra or a Leo?

Do you read your horoscope daily and make life decisions based on that advice?

Astrology teaches that the time cycle in which you were born determines your personality, and to some extent the course of your life. But this might leave you with a sense of being powerless, at the mercy of impersonal forces beyond your control.

Isn’t there something better to help you navigate your way through life?

I believe there is.

How would you like a horoscope that is valid for every day of the year, no matter when you were born?

One that contained truths you could always rely on, was written by Someone who knows you and loves you, and is not determined by inanimate objects like stars or an impersonal and arbitrary time cycle?

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