Author Archives: Monica Bass

Thanks-living

It is significant to note that not one of the thirty-four verses in Scripture that include the phrase “give thanks” was penned after Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday. They weren’t even penned after the Pilgrims began the Thanksgiving tradition.

This would almost lead me to believe that God’s command to “give thanks” is not confined to an annual holiday, that He wants us to give thanks all year long!

Perhaps celebrating Thanksgiving should shape our hearts to practice thanksliving. Continue reading →

When the Thought Counts

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Think of the sounds that may emerge from an accordion when a non-musically-inclined beginner is working at it. Now, listen to it wail out the song “Count Your Blessings”—gasping in an off tempo that is struggling to keep in sync with people singing along.

You have just listened to my one-evening debut with the accordion. I’d like to be able to say that you just heard me practicing. But no, that awful rendition of “Count Your Blessings” was in public.

When I was a teenager, my family went every Tuesday evening to a local nursing home to hold a service as a ministry of our church. I loved the nursing home, and the residents loved our family. That hour was a highlight of the week for all of us.

Usually, my sister, Michele, played piano for the singing during the service. But when she was out of town one week, I had the idea that I could play her accordion. I could read notes, and I knew something of chord theory. This should be a cinch, right? Continue reading →

Christmas Is a Gift

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Ordinarily, I don’t believe in celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving, but I changed my mind this week when the shipment of Striving Together’s new minibook by Dr. Paul Chappell came in. I had the privilege of helping with this book prepress, and seeing it arrive felt like an early Christmas!

Christmas Is a Gift—Unwrap the Significance of the Season is beautiful inside and out. The glossy hardcover makes it perfect for a coffee table decoration or gift, and the full-color Christmas photographs throughout make you want to read it in front of a roaring fire with a cup of hot tea.

But the message inside is the best. Through this 130-page minibook, we see that Christmas is more than an event—it is a gift. Christmas is the gift of Christ’s presence, and His presence in our lives changes everything. Continue reading →

Real Reasons to Rejoice

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You can’t get much plainer than Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.”

But do we?

Do we just punctuate our conversations with “praise the Lord”? Or do we really praise Him?

In Christ, we find unlimited reasons to rejoice. Should we look to find joy in our circumstances, we sometimes could…and sometimes couldn’t. But should we choose to find our joy in the Lord, we will always have reason to rejoice. To rejoice is a choice, and to rejoice in the Lord should be one of the most spontaneous habits for the child of God!

But yesterday, I woke up knowing that I was going to need to make special effort to rejoice, so I set a challenge for myself. Since I knew that there are an infinite number of reasons to rejoice in the Lord (because His attributes and blessings are infinite), I determined to specifically name just one hundred. I wanted a measurable way to choose to rejoice, and I wanted a definite challenge to keep at it all day long. Continue reading →

Creative Christianity

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Did you ever notice that the most commonly correct answer in Sunday school is “Pray and read your Bible”? I first picked up on this in second grade.

“How can we obey God?” the teacher would ask.

Hands would shoot up. But as soon as the first person answered, “Pray and read your Bible,” the hands lowered.

“What does Jesus want us to do?” the teacher would ask.

Again, hands all over the room.

And again, first person who answered got it correct—“Pray and read your Bible.”

This answer began to seem so routine to me that I remember trying to come up with a more creative one—usually something along the lines of “Be nice to your brothers and sisters” or “Go to church.”

A few years later, I began to think that even those answers were becoming annoyingly predictable. How could the answer to every question be the same? Was there nothing more to the Christian life than “pray and read your Bible?” Continue reading →

What We Learn from Veterans

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Victory—I love that word. And I love success, accomplishment, and achievement.

The only problem with experiencing these words—at least in a truly heroic endeavor—is that it takes so long to attain. We want success today. We want achievement now. We want victory without sacrifice and accomplishment without effort.

All of us would thrill to return to a hero’s welcome. But few of us are willing to fight in the trenches and to endure the grueling days of a soldier’s life. Continue reading →

A Pesky Question that Works

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“So, how will you use that today?” That’s it—the pesky question. And a dear, godly lady asked it to me twice this week.

All I was doing was telling her about some advice I had been given and something I was learning. It was sort of a big, vague, wonderful, and sure-to-be-helpful-in-the-future truth.

And then she asked, “So, how will you use that today?”

And I squirmed.

I hadn’t really thought that far. Actually, I was planning to use it in the future—hadn’t thought so much about today. It seemed like the sort of truth that would more clearly define itself along the way. Continue reading →

The Thanksgiving Game

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Have you ever noticed that people only say “It’s just a game” when they’re not winning? As for me, I love winning! Even when I’m playing tic-tac-toe with little kids, I play to win! And I’m not much for the kind of games where nobody/everybody wins because they all tried. (I might have a slight competitive streak.)

But last November, I played a game with my sister and my nephews in which I really believe we all won. It was not so much a competition against each other, as a competition against our own human bent toward ungratefulness.

I call it “the Thanksgiving Game.” Here’s how it works: Each day, beginning November 1^st, players make a list of what they are thankful for beginning with the letter of the alphabet that corresponds with the day. (On November 1, words begin with A; on November 2, words begin with B; and so on.)

For instance, today, I am thankful for Acceptance in Christ, the Ability to serve God, Apples, Aviation technology, Answers, and Available friends. (If I were really trying to make a long list, I could add Anteaters, and Aardvarks…but I think that may defeat the purpose of the exercise.) Continue reading →

Book Review: The Promise

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What would change in your life if you really believed Romans 8:28?

A friend recently gave me The Promise: God Works All Things Together for Your Good by Robert J. Morgan. I was surprised that someone could write a full-length book (210 pages) about one verse of Scripture, and I expected that it might be tedious reading. Based on my friend’s recommendation, however, I began, and immediately, I was thankful I did. In fact, I began underlining even before the table of contents!

This book is encouraging because it focuses attention on God’s infinite love for us and His sovereign power engaged on our behalf. It is also challenging because it reminds us that such love calls for a response of trust and reciprocated love.

The Promise is divided into two parts. The first covers each phrase in Romans 8:28, exploring in depth the richness of this promise. The second part briefly covers six other places in Scripture that echo the promise of Romans 8:28—either in living testimony or in a verse. These chapters are especially encouraging as they reveal just how God makes things work together for good and just what kinds of good He has in mind. Continue reading →

You Are What You Read

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There are many gifts from my parents for which I will forever be thankful. One is the gift of reading. And another is the gift of books.

My mom taught me to read, and I actually remember when “the light turned on.” From that moment on, I was a voracious reader. Because we had no television in our home, I read everything I could lay my eyes on—including the ingredients on the cereal box.

But mostly, I read books. Good books. Books that stretched me and challenged me to love God, grow in maturity, and live by faith. And all this was before I was even in third grade.

What kind of books could do this for a grade schooler? Missionary biographies. Continue reading →