Tag: Jesus

Fanning the Flames of Hope and Love in the Darkness

Post author By Maggie Marcum
Post date January 9, 2026
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I met with a small group of action-minded, concerned people recently. I listened as we went around the room and each shared their sadness, and their anger, over what’s been happening in our nation since the beginning of the new year. As each spoke about our shared grief over military violence in other countries, and in our own streets here in America, each had an undercurrent of hope and love.

That’s what faith does to us. Faith doesn’t say ignore the wrongs in the world. Faith is praying and seeking the face of God, and then acting according to his will. Faith says we have hope in a higher power to shine the light into the darkness we live. Faith says “Here I am Lord,” and means it.

I was also reminded that action in the dark times means different things to different people. Just as each of us who follow Jesus are given different gifts to share and to serve one another as a way to bring the love of Jesus to the world; each of us may be called into action in different ways in this dark time of our nation.

Start on your knees, or whatever your prayer posture is. Soak in the love of Jesus. Sit in the deep love of the Creator. Invite the Holy Spirit to fill you with wisdom and knowledge about what you are to do next. Are you called to be the prayer warrior? Are you called to be the protester on the street? Are you called to be a human barrier protecting the disadvantaged? Are you called to bring food to those afraid to leave their homes? Are you called to clap back against racism and negative comments about fellow citizens?

Answer the call.

Jesus spoke clearly about how God views the way we treat our fellow humans: “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭25‬:‭45‬ ‭NRSVUE‬‬

Th‬‬e same as true in what we do to one another. Are we looking for the face of God in every person? If we are to truly believe that each person is made in the image of God and loved by that same God, who are we to degrade them? Who are we to treat them as less than human? Who are we to disobey the Word of the Lord? And who are we if we fail to love and care for them and to protect them as we would want to be loved and protected? Are we showing the face of a loving God to them?

It breaks our heart when we see professing Christian treat each other in such inhumane ways. It tears us apart when we see a history of violence against one type of person, or one type of religion, that isn’t like ours. It overwhelms us to think that we are on the brink of repeating the cruelty of power-hungry violet leaders in our recent past. We weep for one another and with each other.

And in our weeping, we still have hope. In our weeping, we come to the Lord, confessing our own inadequacies and ungodly thoughts. We come to the Lord seeking forgiveness and restoration. We come to the Lord seeking love and compassion. We fill up all the cracks in our heart with love and compassion, and then we move forward with that same compassion.

Take the light into darkness today. Keep the light of hope lit. Be that light for someone today.

Tags Holy Spirit, God's will, purpose, psalm, Jesus, faith, hope, darkness and light, Chrisitan behavior, lighter walk, social injustice, love like jesus

Living Loving Serving The Lighter Walk

Epiphany: When Light Breaks Through in Love and Hope

Post author By Maggie Marcum
Post date January 6, 2026
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Today is January 6 – the traditional date when Christians celebrate the Feast of Epiphany. There are many traditions and interpretations surrounding this day on the Christian calendar. Epiphany is seen as a holy day of remembrance of the Wise Men’s visit to Jesus, often commemorated by attending church services. Many celebrate it as the last day of the 12 days of Christmas with a Christmas-like celebration of gift giving—similar to the gifts given by the Magi. For some it just signals the date to start taking down Christmas decorations.

Unfortunately, January 6 also has a new meaning in American history. It was a day of violence in our capitol. It was a day of turmoil. It was a sad day in American history. A day that should represent love and hope will forever be remembered in tandem with a day of hatred and violence.

We have a choice today. We who follow Jesus can spend our time rehashing that day, and what it meant for our political system. We can use today as a flashpoint for more anger; whether we believe the actions were righteous of whether we believe the actions were those of insurgents. We can spend our time wrapped in darkness or we can look upward to the light in love for that which is Jesus.

Epiphany is an invitation to encounter the illumination of God in our lives. The path of the wisemen led them to the Christ. It led them to the leader of love and peace. This too can be our path today.

In his Epiphany sermon this past Sunday, Rev. Bill Haley spoke about the darkness in which Jesus was born. A world of hate spread by their leader, Herod. It was into this world that God chose to send a bright light: The true light was coming into the world.”(Jn 1.9). Bill reminded us that “There is Epiphany’s second invitation. The first one is See It. The second one is Be It. Be a child of light.”

This past Sunday, Pastor Gina Anderson-Cloud said because of Jesus, we can “make a difference in our world.“ How can we be the light in the darkness today? How can we follow that light above and help illuminate the world with the love of Jesus? How can we bring hope to the hopeless?

I found recently that as I look deeper into the scriptures and revel in the way in which God loved us so much that he first created us in his image, and when we failed, he sent his son in our image to demonstrate love we could relate to in human form. Jesus came not just to forgive our sins and bring salvation for our souls, he came to model how to love like the God in whose image we are created.

I encourage you to find a community where they are all about the love of Jesus in action. Find a place where you feel the hope of the Holy Spirit to transform lives and to bring the wholeness of a God whose immeasurable love lights the way. Find a place where you can love and serve others and bring the light to them. Be God’s light and gift to others this Epiphany. Allow God’s love to shine through you that lives may be transformed and set free to love others.

“I will brighten the darkness before them and smooth out the road ahead of them. Yes, I will indeed do these things; I will not forsake them.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭42‬:‭16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Tags community, Epiphany, Holy Spirit, hope, image of God, january 6, Jesus, light, love, path, serving others

Aging in Grace Transformation Stories

All He Has Done…

Do you ever find yourself in a place of beating yourself up because you just aren’t good enough? Beating yourself up because you still have bad habits that you wish you didn’t have. Maybe you’re looking at the world around you and wishing it were better than it is.

It is so easy to get stuck in that rut of despair, and in a place of hopelessness. It is easy to go down the dark windy road of doubt and disbelief. And yet I don’t believe that’s where God wants us to land and to stay.

I found this morning that I needed to sit back and make a list of all the things God has done in my life. I started with the near term, and that list was pretty long. As I write this, I’m thinking back to my childhood, my adolescence, and my early 20s, It really is but by the grace of God that I’m still alive and healthy.

My life has changed radically because I was willing to ask for help. I was willing to go to another and say I can’t do this. Sometimes that was a counselor, sometimes it was a lay minister, sometimes it was healing prayer. A lot of times it was sitting in the darkness of my room, crying out. Asking to be changed. But it was me asking. It was a desire for my heart to be different.

So what changed in me? Little things started the change. I quit smoking overnight. I quit over eating to fill the void in my heart. I quit drinking so that I would fit in. A change in who I was dependent on, from seeking out relationships with with people (OK, let’s be real, men) to a relationship with God. Getting to know who Jesus is and become willing to open my hands and ask the Holy Spirit into my life as a guide.

I got a soul friend, a spiritual director, a partner in Faith, whatever you wanna call it but someone who I could wrestle with my insecurities and who would hear from the Holy Spirit and talk me through it. And I opened my heart up more to ask God where I need to change.

Someone asked me the other day how long it takes to change and become more like Jesus. I had to remind them, and me, that we are made in the image of God, but we are not God. We will never be perfect. Our journey will never end until it ends. That means for the rest of our lives, we get to have a close dependent relationship with the Lord.

This morning, I woke to a vision of Angels. I never really believed in angels before. I have come to believe that spiritual and human angels led me to an understanding of what God wants to do in my life. Just like Paul, these angles helped break the chains that bound me to behaviors I needed to relinquish. And just like Paul, they led me out of the darkness and into the light. (acts 12:5-1)

When I sit in that light and when I breathe in the Holy Spirit, I can feel a presence unlike anything else and I know that God isn’t finished with me yet. I am thankful for what he has done, and trust that there is more to come. I’m not as young as I used to be, my body doesn’t jump as quickly; however, my heart still does. I’m still asking how he wants me to change, and working on that change. I’m asking what he wants me to do in this part of my life, and that gives me energy and excitement.

I encourage you to read Romans 8. Learn about living life in the Spirit and God’s desire to transform our lives- together! One little word of advice from Paul:

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭28‬ ‭NIVUK‬‬

Peace be with you friends.

Tags change, forgiven, God, healing, Holy Spirit, hope, Jesus, recovery, redemption, Romans, second half life, transform, transformation

Living Loving Serving

I Hear You, and Still I Linger

Post author By Maggie Marcum
Post date October 20, 2025
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Each day I have the opportunity to choose to sit with God. I get to choose if I will spend a little bit of my day, reading the Word and allowing it to sink into my heart. Each day, I have the opportunity to sit with my hands open and listen for that small voice to speak to me. Each day I have a choice to hear from God.

Some days I choose to start my day in meditation. It always changes everything about my day because those words sit with me. It’s like feeding on the word fills me up and gives me strength to be positive to be kind to be compassionate. I don’t do so well without those words filling me up.

I have the choice of sitting with God in the afternoon. I’m busy trying to get all my steps in,, trying to lose weight. Trying to be healthier. And it’s so easy to turn my app on and listen to the word and be filled again and again. But it’s my choice.

I have the choice to meet with him before I go to bed. I can scroll through everyone else’s story, or I can sit with his story and let that help me to fall asleep. I seldom choose that one. I usually fall asleep to some silly show that I’ve watched 100 times. The nights I do listen to the Word before I fall asleep, I know my dreams will be better. I know I will sleep better. But it isn’t always the choice that I make.

And when I take time to be in those moments with God, he does speak to me. I hear those words and I listen to them over and over and I ask Lord: “What do you want me to take from that today?” Recently in the mountains of North Carolina he spoke very clearly to me through others who prayed with me. He told me I was done with something that I had held tightly for too months now. In fact, it had become my identity. Oh yeah, I was his servant, but I was known and seen and mostly appreciated. But he said it was time to let that go because it was no longer healthy spiritually or emotionally for me.

He gave me a new place to land. A safe place. A place where I could heal and place where I could spend more time with him, if I chose to do. And still, I linger in the past that he has said to let go of. It’s funny how our own self-worth – the identity we choose for ourselves – can trap us in a place where God no longer wants to use us.

I need to listen. I need to go. I need to follow. I think today about those people who left everything to physically follow Jesus. Their life wasn’t easy, but I believe it was better. When we drop the thing that we are holding so tightly, and open our hands to receive the love of God, the blessing of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of Jesus we can step into the unknown, trusting, having faith. I do believe God will use us in ways that we could never begin to imagine.

Take that step. Spend time with the Lord and ask him what the next right step is to take Do the next right thing for him, because of him, and because he loves you enough to lead you down that right path.

“I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭40‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭MSG‬‬

Transformation Stories

The Path to New Life

Life is a journey of finding our meaning, finding our purpose, and stepping forward into the place we believe we are called to live. For years, I have had a vision of a cobblestone path when I meditate or pray. There are times the path is dark, other times the stones are bright. It has been surrounded by flowers; at times it is just grass and even unplanted fields. During really special times of prayer, I often have an overwhelming sense of the Lord guiding me on the path and it always appears more inviting then!

Every pilgrimage toward meaning and purpose begins with a first step and a base upon which we gingerly lay stones of uncertainty. The stones we lay are different; each telling a story of the unique steps taken. Some have been forcefully thrown on my path without care for the impact. Those are the ones that cause me to trip and fall off the path. The ones that make me unsteady in my journey. They are the ones that also compelled me to cry out to God. Help me! Change me! Don’t leave me here.

Tags change, faith, gifts, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, path, purpose, purposeful living, service, transform

The Lighter Walk

Beginning with Peace

We get to chose how we live our lives. As peace-givers or hate-makers. Do we strive to bring “Shalom” in our interactions with others? Or are we ready to battle for our own opinions- no matter the hurt they may cause?

The Bible Project defines the “Hebrew word for peace is shalom, and it describes a deep sense of well-being that comes through the presence of completion, reconciliation, and justice.” Three ways in which we can bring a sense of completeness to our relationship, rather than cracks and brokenness. Sometimes it means we must take steps to restore the brokenness.

Peace then requires us to set aside ourselves and to listen to others. It involves a willingness to bridge the divide and create a new wholeness in the relationship. And that is hard…on our own. Jesus came to teach and bring restoration to a broken world. He came first to restore our relationship with God the father, and he left the Holy Spirit to guide us in the restoration of other broken relationships.

I realize I can’t be a peace-maker if I am not feeding my heart and soul with the good words of my faith. I can’t begin to step into a broken world without praying and coming into agreement with the Lord that Shalom matters. I can’t do it without inviting the Holy Spirit to speak to me. I have to be willing to invest in my spiritual growth if I ever want to get to a place of wholeness for myself and in relationships with others.

Tags advent, faith, Holy Spirit, Jesus, morning prayer, peace, personal development, pray, prayer room, shalom

Transformation Stories

A Hope I Can Trust

Hope is such an encouraging word. We say it all the time: I hope you feel better, I hope you get the job, I hope it all works out. Dictionary.com defines it as: “to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence.” We keep hoping “to feel that something desired may happen.” We don’t know that it will, but it could happen and in saying “I hope,” we mean that we will wait together for whatever is to come, anticipating the best outcome.

However, there is a different kind of hope we discover this time of year – a deeper spiritual hope. This is an extended level of trust, often based on past spiritual experiences or shared stories. It is a hope placed in the person of Jesus Christ. It is a prayer we offer to God, believing in our own spirit, that God will manage the details as we walk with him.

Tags advent, change, finances, hope, Jesus, joy

Transformation Stories

A Thankful Changed Heart

I wanted to sleep in this Thanksgiving morn, and yet I was called out of bed to take in the sunrise over the apartments where I live. You see I was laying in bed moaning to myself about not having a bigger space to invite people into. I was regretting the mistakes that caused me to give up two incredible homes.

As I walked to the kitchen to switch on the coffee pot, I turned and looked out the window to yet another magical sunrise. As a friend used to say: “God hit me with a clue by four” and I remembered how blessed I am to have let all those other houses go. Those places were traps for me financially and, I dare say, spiritually too. It was all about the image I cast about my success and about my ability to fit into a higher economic status. “About me” is the key term here.

Eight years ago, I packed up everything and took a trip away. I didn’t know that stopping for a month and taking in the natural beauty of California would be a pivotal moment in my life. Everything changed when I came home. A smaller place to live—with a view! A new church with new relationships and healing. A new life that wasn’t focused on my image but on the image of Jesus.

Moving the focus from my wants to image-building and the message to have more, meant I could be open to see the needs of others around me. I stepped into prayer ministry. I became a spiritual director to help and encourage other women see God’s plan for them. God led me to little children and parents and a team of incredible care-givers. Unexpectedly, he led me to help create an outreach ministry for those in need of food and care. And now, I hear a call to do more. In HIS name and for HIM. Not me…

All along the way, God was guiding my steps. Even though I was stubborn and stuck to my ways, he was patient in letting me get to where he wants me. This Thanksgiving, I am grateful for the life journey of bumps and bruises because it has taken me to this new place of peace, of carrying others burdens, of waiting on the Lord to nudge me to the next thing.

I am thankful that he has changed my heart. I am thankful for praying friends who have walked with me through awful times. I am thankful for the hope of a new sunrise and a new adventure.

Tags change, Jesus, lifestyle, purposeful living, Thanksgiving, transform

Living Loving Serving

The Gift of my Church Community

Post author By Maggie Marcum
Post date July 22, 2021
No Comments on The Gift of my Church Community

This has been the summer I fully embraced the community of my church family. The one where I attend services and the one that has connected me with some life-long friends and acquaintances. It has been a summer of gathering together socially and spiritually. Mostly, it has been the best time I have had in years and I am beyond grateful.

Tags behavior, change, Christian, church, community, ephesians, faith, forgiveness, friendship, God, Holy Spirit, inspire, Jesus, LGBTQ, pool, sins, spiritual growth, transform

Living Loving Serving Transformation Stories

Respecting the Change

Change is hard. Change brings unfamiliarity. Change can be external to us while processed internally. Change can bring up feelings we never knew we had. Change can send us into a dark place or it can open the door to new opportunities. Change can make us angry or it can bring a sense of relief. Yes, change can be hard.

Tags behavior, change, Christian, Jesus, LGBTQ, pronoun, relationship, respect, transgender