Jo-Ann Porterfield

Best friends.. 😊

@TeamMDunstone Congratulations! Manitoba’s proud of you 🎉

People who are suffering long for help and comfort. We have all experienced this in times of pain. It is an open door for the church to bend down, like her Lord bent down for us, and enter in with wise, gentle, self-sacrificing, and practical ongoing care.

Vulnerability at any time, in any person, demands protection. Our response to vulnerable humans exposes who we are.

@BethMooreLPM @kscook30 😂

@kscook30 With pants lol

I slept till 9:40 this morning. Never, I said never, do I ever get to sleep late but Keith & Pecos are hunting & my people don’t land in till later today and tomorrow. I have y’all know I’ve been wrapping the last of the gifts in the den with Christmas music turned up loud and sliding across the hardwoods in my socks doing dance moves I haven’t done since 1990. If I break something, what a way to go.

“May God in His mercy lead us through these times, but above all, may He lead us to Himself.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, penned from prison

The snowplow, with a single swipe, cleared the snow clean.

Baby pandas in the snow.. 😊

We need to take the initiative to keep suffering people connected with us. If we tell a survivor to call us when they need something, we will probably not hear back. We need to lovingly pursue them with calls and encouraging notes—invitations that are sensitive to their needs.

A boy and his dog.. 😊

Jesus’s strongest rebukes were for those religious leaders who used the words of God to crush and control humanity.

@DannySpxp Cheering for our @BlueJays in Selkirk, MB 🎉 #WeWantItAll

Where's everybody watching from??? #WANTITALL

This is just a quick reminder that leaves don’t change color. Their color is always there, just masked by chlorophyll. When the chlorophyll leaves to store the energy made, the true colors that were always there are revealed.

The greatest enemy to the witness of the Church is not atheism but a version of Christian faith that “believes” in Jesus but doesn’t follow him.

When we were born again, our identity changed from "sinner" to "saint." To tolerate sin is totally out of character.

It ain’t September 21st till you see this on your timeline

On a walk in the woods before church and, even though it’s still hot, I have joy in my heart just knowing autumn is inevitable. It may seem overdue but it’s coming. I feel that way about the new creation. Though we walk in a world quaking wide open with sin, hate, oppression, violence, suffering and death, this is not the way it will always be. A new creation is inevitable. I know that because the Lord keeps his word. Take a deep breath this morning, you who place your faith in Jesus. Breathe so deep you get way down there to where hope hides and let it up again. The new creation may seem overdue but, brother and sister, it’s coming as sure as the sun rose this morning.

Morning Prayer: Loving God, may we be Your peacemakers and peacebuilders in our world that feels divided by words, actions, and opinions. May we use our words and social media to lift up and encourage rather than call out and criticize. Help us to build bridges of peace. Amen.

Government has its vital role in society. Likewise, the judicial system. Politics has its place and, as voters, we all, of course, have ours. But as the church—the collective of Jesus followers in this society—our voice would be woefully misplaced among those calling down fire from heaven on people and communities that don’t want Christ. (Or those who don’t want or share our view of Christ!) Jesus turned on his heels and rebuked James and John for this very thing. Yes yes yes, we preach and teach the gospel of Jesus and with passion and strong conviction but as those who have taken on the same attitude that was in Christ Jesus. This is required of us in Philippians 2. I’m not sure anything can be more challenging but it is our responsibility. We’re called to walk in the Spirit, crucified to the flesh. This doesn’t mean we’re passive. It doesn’t mean we’re always silent. It doesn’t mean we don’t rebuke or reprove. It doesn’t mean we don’t grieve. It doesn’t mean we don’t get angry. But it means we catch ourselves when our anger starts turning into sin. It means we choose to act and speak from an attitude that reflects Jesus. It means we don’t play God.