We have a rose tree in front of our house. One of my daughters has been faithfully caring for it and it is loving the attention. The rose tree is full with beautiful red roses coming into bloom. But without realizing it, we planted our rose tree in a place without any block from the Read More
Posts by Chips Ross
Gardening Lessons – Fruit Is A Gift
I walked by our peach tree this morning and am excited about the many peaches we have. They’re still green, so much more time is needed. Nearby is our blackberry vines, which look very healthy and flowering. There’s no berries yet, so much more time is needed. Having a garden means a lot of work, Read More
Gardening Lessons – The Slow, Faithful Way
I’m a little sore this morning, as we’ve been putting a lot of manual work into our garden. In shoveling, digging, planting, and weeding, I’m using some muscles I’m not used to using! The question is: will it all be worth it? What if after all of this work and expense there is no fruit? Read More
Gardening Lessons – I Need Help
For spring break, my wife and I decided to tackle some gardening projects. But we’re not experts; we don’t have green thumbs. We just have a desire to garden and grow. And so we learn. We talk to people. We watch youtube videos and listen to podcasts. And sometimes, we have good results from our Read More
The Passion Week/Easter Week
Jesus is risen! We celebrate Easter Sunday as a moment of Jesus’ triumph over death, sin, and evil. But like so many things in life, there is much more to this story. I’ve been thinking this week about Jesus’ easter week. As I do this, I marvel at God’s intricate plan, the generous offer of Read More
Thumb In My Eye
Sunday afternoon, I stuck my thumb painfully into my eye. Not on purpose, of course, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. Whose fault was it? Well, I playfully threw a pillow at my wife. She threw it back. I went to block the flying pillow, but since I missed it the force of Read More
The Secret Of Being Content
A resolution for 2021 was to make exercising part of my daily routine. Here we are in March, and so far, so good. But today was decidedly not good and very challenging. I wanted to quit. My body felt like it couldn’t go any further. My eyes were ready to shut and my brain was Read More
Weakness in Prayer
Are you ever unsure of what to pray? Romans 8:26-27 provides such encouragement, acknowledging our weakness in prayer and providing specific solution: “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches Read More
The Test of Unanswered Prayer
We might assume that God is pleased with this commitment to pray and so reward us. But often times, God does the opposite in His wisdom. Instead of pouring out answers of prayer and blessings of His goodness, He withholds. Why? To test us. Are we serious about prayer? Do we really hunger for Him? Are we desperate to see Read More
D.L Moody and the importance of Prayer
D.L Moody was an untrained preacher mightily used by God for the salvation of many during the late 1800’s. In a biographical sketch, an author pinpointed prayer as vital to the ministry of D.L. Moody. The noon prayer meeting was his most important meeting of the day. If the prayer meeting got dull or dead, he would pause, and seek to Read More