NIKI FLORICA

For the past few weeks, sitting down to blog has felt like staring at a solid wall and trying to see through it. And no, I'm not referring to writer's block, though I've certainly experienced enough of that. The wall I have in mind is worse—taller, thicker, uglier, and stationed squarely between me and God. We often think of Satan as a master destroyer, but in many ways, he's a master craftsman as well. He carves beautiful idols for us to worship, forges weapons to use agains

Surprise—I'm still here! Although normally I try to post blogs even while I'm on vacation, this year, I decided to give myself a break for a week of rest and relaxation in Northern Ontario. The time away was such a blessing, y'all: I even scratched some new items off my never-done-before list, INCLUDING swimming in black, weedy water infested by living creatures. Be proud of me. There are a few topics I could delve into for this post, but one in particular stood out to me whi

Lost, chained, a fool, or at wit's end. Which one are you? Try finding yourself in the spectrum of Psalm 107's desperate people. Are you the lost soul wandering the wilderness, nowhere to go, hungry but not sure what for, craving a feeling of belonging? Are you the one who sits in deepest gloom, in chains of your own making? Are you the fool who turned your back on God, marched to the beat of your own drum, and now stand at death's door, crying out for help? Are you the sailo

Funny thing about toast—when you smell it, you want it. Ever notice that? I mean, there was a time when I would sooner eat dirt than toast, and I still can't deny its magical property of being appetizing in any and every context. It's just one of those things. Innately appealing, we need only to experience a whiff of it to crave it. Something in us just wants toast. What if I told you that Jesus and toast have a lot in common? See, the Word of God calls us to follow Jesus, bu

The 39 books of the Old Testament paint a picture of what C.S. Lewis calls the "hammering process—" centuries of God's hard-line training program to show Israel just what kind of God had chosen them and what He expected of them. "Hammering" seems like the right word. I mean, I'd be the first to admit that the Old Testament account, while bound together with the theme of God's tireless mercy and lovingkindness toward sinners, can also seem pretty, well . . . harsh. Those of us

I think it's fairly safe to say that we've all had expectations drenched in a cold wave of reality. Human beings are creative. We're blessed with vast imaginations that allow us to envision our dreams in vivid ways, but unfortunately, those dreams and expectations are a bit like chalk on a driveway—pretty to look at on a sunny summer day, but quick to melt into streaky asphalt as soon as it starts to rain. It's a miserable feeling. Watching something we imagined, anticipated,

Jeremiah—what a book. I mean, really, what a story. Like so many of God's prophets, he was thrown into a role he felt ill-equipped for, only withstanding the hostility and depravity of his people by God's supernatural provision. I can't imagine being given a job knowing that 90% of it will feel like a waste of time. To be tasked with proclaiming a message daily that no one (almost literally) will listen to. Jeremiah was known as the Weeping Prophet. Considering the emotional

We think of progress as something linear—an arrow from present to future, improving all the time, always a step ahead of where we were before. We think of progress as the "new" and regress as the "old." And in the world's eyes, that paints a bad picture for the Word of God. I mean, how many times have we heard Christianity pegged as something "old-fashioned?" Something that worked for the pioneers, maybe—but society has moved past that now. We've grown. We've improved. We don

In our effort to have a relationship with God, to know Him and His Son on an intimate, personal level, I think there is a pitfall we often fall into—the trap of squeezing God into a little, buddy-shaped box. I'm no expert, but from where I'm standing, contemporary Christianity places a ton of emphasis on Jesus the Savior and Friend, but less on God the Righteous and Just Judge of the Universe. We have no problem going to Jesus with all our daily problems, or claiming him as o

God is so much bigger than I've always known, and He's beginning to show Himself to me in ways I hadn't imagined before. I and people in my life are seeing miracles, feeling true Spirit-filled convictions, hearing God's will with a clarity I'd only groped for before. God hasn't changed, so I know it must be me. My perception of God's power has grown, and the more I believe He can do, the more He does. Yesterday, I needed to make a choice—a choice between acting or waiting. I

Tackling new or overwhelming undertakings in our lives can be exciting, but it can also be laden with baggage—fear and uncertainty, doubt an

We already know that getting through this life with our faith intact means eternal life, joy, and ecstasy in heaven. But God doesn't just da

"Waiting" carries so many connotations—tension, expectation, worry, time, patience, impatience, hope, fear—but if we're being completely honest with ourselves, it usually isn't a discipline that comes easily or enjoyably to us. It's true that waiting, at times, can make the final product sweeter: waiting for a wedding day, for example, or waiting for the ability to go to the grocery store and take as much time as you need to get whatever you need whenever you need. In that wa

The book of Numbers tells us that Moses was extremely humble, "more humble than any other person on earth in his time" (Num. 12:3) in his time. Take a moment to consider that in light everything else we know about him—mainly his role as the leader of a massive, infamous group of Hebrews—and perhaps you'll agree that humility in a figure of such importance must have been an extremely admirable trait. Moses' humility protected him from the pitfalls of pride and arrogance, true.

I've been thinking a lot about courage. It's not something I have in abundance, and in truth, it's not a trait that I often think to strive for. The word conjures visions of dragon-slaying and sword-fighting and setting off upon wild adventures, and though I love to write about things like that . . . I don't have much experience with living them. So in day to day life, I focus on practicing other traits, like patience and kindness, honesty, fruits of the Spirit. Maybe that's

I'm fascinated by the concept of ancient prophets. Men and women selected by God to be the mouthpieces of divine messages—often outcast from society, ignored or called foolish, feared or hated or both, and always sustained by the very hand of God. What would it have been like to experience that calling? To spend days spouting messages that you might never see manifested, that you might never understand? A sermon brought that to my attention recently, and it fascinated me all

For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. ~Isaiah 41:13 Sometimes I feel as if I'm standing on the edge of a valley, gazing down from a place of safety to an amphitheatre of dangers, threats, possible disasters, and monsters of uncertainty rearing ugly heads. My path leads right through the worst of them, and though every wise voice says nothing worthwhile is easy, there's a huge part of me that is always, always tempted to

"The Lord's gotten you this far, He'll take care of you the rest of the way." These words glowed from the page of Frank Peretti's, This Present Darkness, to warm me with a much-needed burst of spiritual strength. No matter what path we're on, no matter how difficult the road has been, there's no question that whatever progress we have made is due to God's strength and guidance. Hindsight shows us that each trial we endure can work good in the world and in our lives, and after

The children of Israel have suffered four hundred years of bondage to the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt, clinging to El Shaddai's sacred promise to one day deliver them. Miriam is a prophetess—the one Hebrew who hears El Shaddai's voice in their time of tribulation—but as the four hundred years reach their end, she feels as if El Shaddai has gone silent. Without His voice whispering in her thoughts, Miriam is lost. When her long-exiled brother, Moses, returns from the wilderness,

By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. ~Hebrews 11:8 Christians talk a lot about faith, don't they? Walk by faith and not by sight, saved by grace through faith, faith and hope and charity, following in faith. It's a foundational component of a Christ-centred life. The very nature of our spiritual walk demands it. We serve a Lord and Saviour who is pr