If God Is For Us…

July 31, 2019 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

What more could we possibly need? He is our Creator. The Old Testament tells us about the back and forth relationship between the people and God. Eventually God decides there is only One way to save us and because of His great love for us, it is finished. God tried many different ways to have relationships with people and Jesus Christ knows what it is like to be human in this world. God knows you; He knows more about you than you realize and He loves you. All that is good comes from God, He is with you and His plan is for good things in your life and even though things will go wrong because of sin in the world, He will still be with you to strengthen you and encourage you to keep going, keep trying and keep trusting in Him. Seek out God and His plan and you will find peace. Amen.

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“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us,who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

Romans 8:31-32

(This photo was taken in August of 2016 in Mount Rainier National Park in Washington)

The Fruit Of The Spirit

July 19, 2019 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

When we come to Christ and seek Him, we are renewed. The Holy Spirit within us encourages us to live by the Fruit of the Spirit more and more and to leave the evil, anger, hatred and darkness behind. The more we use the Fruit of the Spirit when thinking about ourselves and while helping others the better our life will be. Most of us are too hard on ourselves and too hard on others…things can be different. Pick up God’s Word and read about it, pray and ask for forgiveness of your sins and to have the Fruit of the Spirit stirred up in you. May God’s love, joy and peace be with you. Amen.

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“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23

(This photo was taken in June of 2013 while traveling through northern Colorado)

His Love Endures Forever

May 25, 2019 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

All that is good comes from God. When darkness creeps in and fear takes hold, God is our strength. When you don’t know what to do ask God to guide you and your decisions. When life is going well give thanks to God for His blessings. Remember the Lord every day and know that with God all things are possible. Amen.

Forever by Chris Tomlin

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“Give thanks to the Lord, for his is good. His love endures forever.”

Psalm 136:1

(This photo was taken in June of 2018 at a lake near Plymouth, Minnesota)

Free Will

April 23, 2019 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

God has given us the gift of free will. We are allowed to choose how we will respond to everything. When you think about it after everything that God has experienced with the human race…why did He do this? After all the things humans have chosen to do wrong starting with Adam and Eve, why allow us to choose? I believe it is because real love, joy and goodness offered voluntarily is the only kind worth having…the risk, of course, is we are filled with sinful hearts and minds and we often choose poorly and that is why bad things happen in the world. Use your free will to offer goodness, kindness, love and joy to others. Amen.

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“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5:13-14

(This photo was taken in August of 2016 near Arches National Park in Utah)

Return To Sender

March 23, 2019 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

It is true…we will get exactly what we give in this life. If we choose to stomp around with anger, deceit and selfish motivations, always screaming and yelling about our rights…there is no reason to expect others to treat us any differently. Take a moment to reflect on any recent interaction you have had that didn’t go well from your perspective. Who was first to start the interaction? You or the other person and what was the tone and demeanor of the first person to act? If things started from a place of anger and tension then I would guess it continued and escalated or even if it started out just fine something must have happened that turned it into something unpleasant. We are wired to react and respond and if someone doesn’t stop the reaction response mentality things get to the point where people get hurt or killed. There must be a better way…The Good News is just that…a better way. We can choose to be different, we can be kind and compassionate with patience if we are willing to turn towards Jesus Christ and invite Him into our hearts and minds and we read the Word of God to learn about this Way every day. Amen.

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“The one who sows to please the sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

Galatians 6:8

(This photo was taken in August of 2016 near Dillon, Colorado)

Persistence

February 12, 2019 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

As of last night our area in the upper Midwest has received 16 inches of snow in the last week. Last night, another 4-5 inches fell and it will continue to snow until this afternoon, we may get more on Thrusday. We are not the only area with weather affecting every day life. I thought I heard the Seattle area received as much snow from one strom that it usually receives the entire winter. The pattern for us has been snow, then cold, then snow, then cold…repeat, repeat. The persistence of it can put some people under pressure while some people have big smiles on their faces…I tend to be more in the latter group. It is all about how we choose to respond. If you want to understand more about yourself and how you handle things that cannot be controlled…observe your reaction in relation to the weather. The same is true when it comes to doing good things we need to be persistent and not give up. Things will go wrong, the problems will seem to big, we will read and see terrible things in this world, we need to focus on Jesus Christ, we need to be persistent in our faith…that is the answer to all that we cannot control. Amen.

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“And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is right.”

2 Thessalonians 3:13

(This photo was taken in August of 2016 in Mount Rainier National Park in Washington)

Developing Who We Are

February 2, 2019February 2, 2019 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

The faith journey takes us on a road of self-awareness and growth. As we read God’s Word and the teachings of Jesus, we hear messages about our attitudes, our behaviors, our words and our actions. These are all things that we can control in our everyday life. Instead of wasting our time worrying and wringing our hands about what other people are doing, thinking or saying we would do well to focus that effort on developing the Fruit of the Spirit in our own lives and relationships. After all, we have the most control over one thing more than any other…how we choose to respond. May we strive to grow the Fruit of the Spirit in who we are in the world. Amen.

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“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23

(This photo was taken in August of 2016 at Sapphire Point near Dillon, Colorado)

Do Good Things

January 27, 2019 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

This statement is all about being focused on persistence and patience. We often get stuck on narrow minded results of our actions or words. We lose sight of the fact the God is working for the good of all people and each of us plays a role in a much larger story that we will not always be able to see the results of first hand. His will and His plans are so much greater than ours and so it comes down to our willingness to trust in God’s plan more than our own desires. We know what it means to do good, we understand how to bear fruit in our daily lives and it is our responsibility to strive to do those things and leave the rest up to God. As they say, God is good all the time and all the time God is good. May we be blessed to share the goodness of the Lord today and everyday. Amen.

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“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Galatians 6:9

(This photo was taken in August of 2016 on the shore of Elliott Bay in downtown Seattle, Washington)

Spiritual Gifts

January 16, 2019 / mcalcagno / 1 Comment

We all have been blessed with certain gifts, talents and abilities. It is important for us to learn about our gifts in order for us to use them in the world. There are an overwhelming amount of books and tests and profile charts created by people to sort out what “tendencies” we each possess. Another way to understand more about our spiritual gifts is to pay attention to what comes naturallly to us and what things other people sometimes point out to us as a real gift. As with anything, a assessment of your spiritual gifts should be done in consultation with Jesus Christ. If we go into and through this process without being led by the Lord then all we are doing is finding out what the world thinks of us or what the world thinks we should do. We are all created for a purpose and only God can guide us to the truth about what that is. May peace and joy be with you on your faith journey. Amen.

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“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Ephesians 2:10

(This photo was taken in July of 2018 at a park on Madeline Island in Lake Superior)

Goodness

December 7, 2018 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

This is one of the Fruits of the Spirit. In our dictionaries it is defined as ‘the quality and state of being good.’ I see it as a summary word…things that go into goodness can include…being helpful, selfless, supportive, kind, generous, a good listener or serving the needs of others. There are several ways to express goodness in our every day life. It is up to us to choose an attitude that will reflect goodness in our actions and our behaviors. I pray we all tune into the Holy Spirit living within us and seek goodness and righteousness wherever we are in life and the world. Here is a quote associated to John Wesley that speaks about doing good:

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

John Wesley

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