Blog
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Five Minute Friday: How to influence someone (as Oswald Chambers would)
As I read more of Oswald Chambers’ works, he the Scottish Baptist minister who died a hundred years ago at the age of forty-one, I appreciate increasingly one of his often-repeated insights – don’t interfere in what God is doing in the life of another. Instead, trust that God through his Holy Spirit will work…
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Top ten popular articles on amyboucherpye.com
In May 2013 I posted my first blog here, fearful that having a website would be a “hungry monster” that would require constant feeding. I suppose there’s some truth to that fear, but over the years I’ve found the regular practice of posting to be more of a source of joy rather than a burden.…
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Watercolor Wednesday: Blue January?
Blue January can still be beautiful, right? Take some time to walk in this painting, imagining that you’re in this atmospheric scene. Are you alone, or is someone with you? What do you sense and feel? Where is God?
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Five Minute Friday: A Better Use of Words
“You’d better get your homework done!” “She’s better than you.” “I’m going to be the better person here and let that comment slide…” Better. It’s a strange word when you stare at it too long. And it can so easily have negative connotations – threats, negative comparisons, and so on. The Israelites used it in…
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Watercolor Wednesday: Crunching through the snow
Scenes such as this one make me feel a bit nostalgic, for they are commonplace in Minnesota, where I grew up. Whereas winter in London means a bracing wind, soaking rain, and radiator heat at set times in the day. I don’t miss the freezing temperatures, but I fancy the thought of a walk in…
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Weekly devotional: Finishing the race (14 in Paul’s letters to Timothy series)
I should have posted this final devotional in the 1 and 2 Timothy series long ago! Odd to be doing so at the beginning of January, when it’s time for a fresh start, but life can be like that, can’t it. Sometimes we have to finish off the old things before we can embrace the…
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Celebrating Epiphany!
Happy Epiphany! The wise men have made their journey to the toddler Jesus, bringing their gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh. I learned a few things today from our youth worker’s sermon – the Western Church believes there were three wise men (because of the three gifts they brought), but the Eastern Church says there…
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Celebrating the twelfth day of Christmas: Reveling throughout the ages
We’ve reached the end of the Christmas season, the twelfth day of Christmas! Tomorrow is Epiphany, when we mark the arrival of the wise men bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the newborn King. I’ve been reading about the Twelfth Night parties in England in years past, finding the practices fascinating. Often…
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Celebrating the eleventh day of Christmas: Extreme spirituality
The eleventh day of Christmas coincides with the feast day of Simeon Stylites (c. 390? – 2 September 459). No, I hadn’t heard of him either. He was zealous for Christ, entering a monastery before he 16 years old. So committed was he to acts of extreme austerity that the other monks asked him to…
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Celebrating the tenth day of Christmas: The name of Jesus
On the tenth day of Christmas, some Christian traditions celebrate the naming of Jesus in the temple (other traditions celebrate this on January 1). When the angel appeared to Joseph, he learned what to name the boy, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit: But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared…
