The Smell of Fresh Bread

By Julie Cosgrove

In the town where I grew up there was a bread factory. During the Viet Nam War years, that factory received a contract to bake for the troops.. The aroma of freshly baked bread penetrated for blocks each day, weekends too, spreading out into business parking lots, playgrounds, and neighborhood backyards. Whenever the folks smelled the bread, they thought of the troops.

We’d pass the factory on Sunday mornings as we drove to church. As soon as we got within a mile or so, the aroma would fill the car. Our mouths would water at the very thought of those loaves  meandering slowly on the maze of stainless steel carousels from the oven to the  packaging area, gradually cooling, giving off that enticing whiff of heaven.  

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Rock Climbing

By Julie Cosgrove

Sometimes we need another perspective on things. We can get so caught up in the fog our little world that it can obscure our vision of everything else. We can’t see the big picture, the forest for the trees as the saying goes. Like peering through smudged and scratched up glasses, we see things skewed and out of focus. Sometimes, we don’t even realize it. We just get used to viewing things that way.

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Turn Evil To Live – Live To Love

By Julie Cosgrove

The English language can be amazing. Take for example the words  EVIL and LIVE and VILE. They all have the same letters, yet such different  meanings. What if each letter stood for another word?  Could there be a message in that?

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Time For War?

By Julie Cosgrove

Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.” Joel 3:10

The prophet Joel is reversing what Isaiah once said in 2:4- the more familiar verse that is often stated on greeting cards along with Peace on Earth near Christmas and into the New Year. We think of our Lord as a peaceful God, one that wants us to turn the other cheek, who told Peter to put away his sword in the Garden, who wouldn’t fight to defend himself from execution on the cross, and told His disciples after the resurrection “Peace I bring to You.” In fact, we call Christ the Prince of Peace.

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Sunday Morning Blahs or Aahhs

By Julie Cosgrove

“I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Lets us go to the House of the Lord’.” Psalm 122:1

Do you say that on Sunday mornings? I have to admit at times I’d rather stay home than to get up, bathe and dress, and drive 40 minutes up the highway to where I worship. But I have learned, those are also the days I need to be there the most. Those are the days the sermon will especially touch my heart or the music lift my soul or a friend’s hug renew my joy. That is why another force was trying to steer me away from the House of the Lord. When I obey that other voice, that day and my week just does not go as well unless I repent.

I have heard people say they do not need to go to Church to worship God. True. But there is strength in numbers. We need to pray for each other, to sing and praise together, to hear how the Word is affecting others. Solitude is fine in short spells, and necessary in your prayer time with God, but too much can open the door to self-involvement, sloth, and depression. Interacting with others in the faith can dispel the darkness that creeps into our souls from the weight of the world. To worship in His House with others is like a mini-baptism. It washes us clean of the world’s sludge so we can be more fit to go back out into it. It is a transfusion from the Blood of the Lamb to renew our strength. We need it. 

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