JanineThrossel.com

Some moments in American history have left deep indentations. . . . The signing of our Declaration of Independence from England. The Stock Market Crash. The attack on Pearl Harbor. The Montgomery Bus Boycott. The 1963 March on Washington. The assassinations of JFK, MLK Jr. and Robert Kennedy . . . Some of those events stemmed from now-ended enmities. We are allies with Britain now. We are friends with Japan. However, the deep racism that led to white Americans killing black ones has never gone away. Laws have changed, which is huge and important. Yet, white people still kill black ones and raise their children to do the same. To paraphrase Rosa Parks, I'm tired of it. People keep saying that white silence perpetuates the problem. So let me say it loudly and publicly. Racism is wrong. Did you get that? Racism is wrong. Why does that even need to be said? Yet, in our beautiful, great, amazing country, we still have to teach it and say it. People still believe that t...

We're each different: Healthy. . . ill. . . working. . . laid off . . .homeschooling . . . relaxing. . . struggling. . . Yet, all of us wait and wonder. We wait to see if the situation we're in will get better or worse, if someone we love will get infected or if we'll keep our jobs. We wonder how this crisis happened, when it will be over, and how it will change us. Now, church buildings are starting to reopen and we have more questions. In a country covering almost 4 million square miles, the reopening plan for a church in one town is not necessarily right for another. We don't know all the answers. Yet, I believe God gives answers to one question that all believers should be considering. How should we live, as Christians, during this pandemic? As we wait and wonder together, here are some suggestions. 10 Things For Christians To Do During a Crisis 1. Remember God has not changed. Don't just remember it, but know it down deep in your bones. God is the...

May 1, 2020 I am enjoying some Water Cake this morning with my tea. Have you ever tried that? It’s an unusual recipe because it doesn’t require any ingredients from the frig like milk, butter or eggs. It’s made with water and ingredients from the pantry, including oil, flour and sugar. It’s a good recipe to have during times like a pandemic or a blackout, when you can’t always get everything you want at the grocery store or keep everything you want in the refrigerator. As I was making it this week, I was thinking about another woman who didn’t have butter, milk or eggs to cook with either. Her story is in the Bible, in 1st Kings 17. She lived at the same time as God’s prophet Elijah, and there was a drought where they were. From the beginning of this drought, God had led Elijah to a place alongside a brook, where he had good, fresh water to drink. God sent birds to him twice a day, carrying meat and bread for him to eat! Can you imagine what that delivery service might have been ...

I love these thoughts from Matthew Henry's commentary on Luke 3, regarding the biblical account of Jesus' life and the synoptic gospels. "Nothing is related ( to us in the Bible ) concerning our Lord Jesus from his twelfth year to his entrance on his thirtieth year. We often think it would have been a pleasure and advantage to us if we had journals, or at least annuls, of occurrences concerning him; but we have as much as Infinite Wisdom thought fit to communicate to us, and, if we improve not that, neither should we have improved more if we had had it. The great intention of the evangelists was to give us an account of the gospel of Christ, which we are to believe, and by which we hope for salvation: now that began in the ministry and baptism of John, and therefore they hasten to give us an account of that. We could wish, perhaps, that Luke had wholly passed by what was related by Matthew and Mark, and had written only what was new, as he has done in his two first chapt...