growth Archives - Keith Shields

With God as Our Father

The Bible repeatedly refers to God as father and his followers as his children. Dependent upon our relationships with our earthly parents, this can either be a calming thought or one that leads to tension. Some of us were taught that our heavenly father was mostly a judge who showed his disappointment and anger when…

With God’s Help

Psalm 108 says in part, Have you rejected us, O God? Will you no longer march with our armies?Oh, please help us against our enemies, for all human help is useless.With God’s help we will do mighty things, for he will trample down our foes. The mournful cry of people asking if God has rejected them sometimes resonates…

River Otter Education

I have previously written about how adult Osprey teach their young to fly and said that it is delicate business because they really only get one chance to try and there can be no failures. Recently, I saw some video of a mother river otter teaching her pup to swim. The pups are born without…

Small Steps

Resolutions or irresolution; we hear many opinions. You may also hear many statistics telling us that only about 7% will have kept their resolutions by the second week in January. You don’t even want to read a blog about resolutions! Neither do I. So instead I would like to advocate for small, feeble, steps throughout…

I Just Want To Know

Regardless of where you are in your spiritual journey, I pray that you might be always drawing closer to God. As I went for a run this morning a prayer written by Steve Taylor came to mind and I prayed as I ran. In all of the activity of life: teaching, mentoring, preaching, planning, and…

Automatic

I have come to appreciate that life is not easy. I know that God has created a world that is hard work, challenging, full of temptation, and sometimes painful. I understand that this is how He prepares us for living in heaven. I know that He is concerned with “soul-building.” I do not want an…