James Pence

How God is Faithful Through Loss and Adversity

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What does it mean to “trust God” in the corona virus crisis?

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:26). New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Okay, it’s time to be honest. Yes. I’m frightened. The current situation in the world and in the US, particularly the uncertainty of it all, are very distressing to me. It’s also confession time. You might not know this about me. Only a handful of people do. I’ve battled anxiety and depression most of my life.  In my …

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Reflections on a Pandemic

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights (Habakkuk 3:17-19). New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights …

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Flash Fiction: Verdict

DISCLAIMER: What follows is horribly bad writing—intentionally so. I invited Facebook friends to supply me with seven prompts: Protagonist, Antagonist, Occupation, Setting, Situation, Wildcard, and Random Character. From those seven prompts, I agreed to write a piece of flash fiction up to 1000 words, using at least five of the seven. Prompt #6 below instructs me to “Overwrite. Use lots of adjectives and adverbs.” So I did. And just for fun I threw in a bunch of clichés, too. I had to break a lot of writing rules to produce this piece. So, please read this as an illustration of how …

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The Lesson of the Manna

“[God] rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven” (Psalm 78:24 NIV). Sheer panic is an apt description for what I felt. Laurel and I moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana in January of 1984, to begin working with a small Christian ministry. There was only one hitch. We had to raise our own support. After sending letters to everyone we knew (and a few people we didn’t), we had raised about $500 a month in income. We needed to cover at least three times that in expenses. I was a bit cocky at …

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On God’s faithfulness…

“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19 NIV). Is God faithful? Will he really provide for my needs? Or are those just words that sound good but have no anchor in reality? I can’t speak for others; I can only tell my story. Laurel and I began a journey of learning about God’s faithfulness in January of 1984. I had accepted the position of administrator for a small Christian ministry in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We were excited about our move to Baton Rouge, but it included a …

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