Prayerful Pondering

by Pat Luffman Rowland

Category: Christian service

  • Calls to Serve

    Some assignments are so clear, you simply cannot miss them. Others may be subtle little nudges that can go easily unnoticed. They seem small, happen quickly, and are easily passed by.

  • For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD (Isaiah 55:8 ESV). It feels good when we know we are using the gifts God has given. There is a sense of completion in our work. But what about the times we see our service as something here, something…

  • Psalm 78:70-71 — He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. (NIV) I suspect there were a few during David’s time that imagined themselves to be king material.  They no doubt whispered of…

  • There was a problem at the store’s point of check out. The line of waiting customers stalled and those nearest her were subjected to a loud woman intent on drawing a customer right behind her into conversation. At first I was annoyed by her rudeness and grateful we had this one person between us. But…

  • I closed my eyes and could see her smiling and filled with joy.  She had made it home and she did it with courage and determination. Betty Jo Spencer Replogle completed her earth’s journey and at God’s perfect moment, He lifted her away from the world’s burdens and into heaven’s triumph. “Jo” was the youngest…

  • I am reading a book of near-death experiences, I Believe in Heaven: Real Stories from the Bible, History and Today. Written by Cecil Murphey and Twila Belk, it is a compilation of many people’s stories of going to heaven and returning to tell about it. In each case the individual did not want to return, but…