Hindsight

Sixty years of age is not the most practical time in life to launch out on an adventure requiring an ability yet to be learned. However, Abraham was not a spring chicken when he left Ur of the Chaldees to follow the voice of God. I have had many and varied promises and words from the Father over the years but am almost always surprised by how He fulfills them. I have erringly obsessed over figuring out how it would look when the promise was fulfilled. However, the expectations that READ MORE

Will You Come

This article is written by my daughter, Katie Jacobsen, for ‘Around the Fire’, a newsletter published by Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch where she is employed. She has not had an easy journey, and yet through that journey she has gained wisdom and maturity. I am blessed to reprint this article for you here. Our God is an initiator; He won’t leave any place untouched within you. He will keep knocking. He will keep beckoning. He will keep whispering your name until He has captured your whole heart. Back in January, READ MORE

Finding Identity

The afternoon was warm under a bright California sun. September was in full swing bringing cooler nights and my first week of Junior High School. I stood in the schoolyard waiting to try out for the flag football team. With the usual banter and testosterone-induced posturing, a gaggle of boys began to pull into a huddle as the coach strutted across the field carrying a net bag filled with balls and flag belts. I stood with the others in hope that I would be selected for the team. My challenge READ MORE

God’s Timing

One of the most difficult areas to understand and embrace in this journey is God’s timing. What is He thinking? We get a promise from Him through His word to us; a scripture, a prophet, or a friend that resonates with our spirit. We receive it with joy and anticipation that we are about to see a big change in our lives and then nothing. Nothing! We wait for days. We wait for weeks, many times months and years, and still, it is a dry well. In our exuberance, we READ MORE

A Door of Hope

The years was 1984. I had recently left a job working for an electrical contractor and moved to the town of Visalia in the San Joaquin Valley of California. I was studying for the electrical contractor’s test so that I could begin my own business when a friend of mine called. He had been contracted to install some gas pumps at a small mini-mart in a nearby town and asked if I would do the electrical for him. I had no idea what was required for I had never wired READ MORE

A Different Way of Seeing

Five weeks ago, my wife and I were packing again. We had been house-sitting for some friends who had taken a trip to Washington DC and New York. We had hoped to find a place to rent during our time in town. Indeed, the Father had spoken to us on numerous occasions that He would provide when the time was right. I guess this wasn’t the time. Packing again to spend weeks camping was wearing thin. We felt no grace. That story is told in the article entitled, ‘Door of READ MORE

Living from the Father’s Heart

On December 28, 2010, I was prayer journaling and heard these words. They were not mine but flowed from deep inside me as I wrote. I believe that this was instruction from the Father through His Spirit into mine.  I share them in order to bless you in your journey.   If you would walk in my ways, then you will have to bury yourself deep into Me and anchor your soul in love to my faithfulness.  This must become fixed in your mind and your heart for you must READ MORE

Courting Disaster

Bile roiled and churned in his stomach as the accused sat alone in the cell awaiting the trial that would seal his fate. The stench of human depravity and sweat permeated his minute world. The specters of others who had awaited their time before the judge, closed around him dimming the light from the single bulb above his head. The weight of the unknown hung before him like the gallows outside his cell. Until this moment, he would have said he was a good man. He did not understand the READ MORE