The house, it's already been a-settin' here for a hundred years. It'll be right here tomorrow. It's today I must be livin'.

God insists that we ask, not because He needs to know our situation, but because we need the spiritual discipline of asking.

Evil is real - and powerful. It has to be fought, not explained away, not fled. And God is against evil all the way. So each of us has to decide where we stand, how we're going to live our lives. We can try to persuade ourselves and wink at evil. We can say that it isn't so bad after all, maybe even try to call it fun by clothing it in silks and velvets. We can compromise with it, keep quiet about it , and say it's none of our business. Or we can work on God's side, listen for His orders on strategy against the evil, no matter how horrible it is, and know that He can transform it.

Have you ever thought that the only ugl things in this Cove are man's fault, while the beautiful things are God's work? Look at those mountains.

Lord, what are you trying to teach me?

I learned that true forgiveness includes total acceptance.

Clean up a pigsty," she commented one evening, "and if the creatures in it still have pig-minds and pig-desires, soon it will be the same old pigsty again.