by heavenward | Dec 1, 2021 | Blog
Merry Christmas from the Nielsen Family! “O Hope of Israel, our Savior in times of trouble, why are you like a stranger to us? Why are you like a traveler passing through the land, stopping only for the night?” Jeremiah 14:8 Dear Friends, We wanted...
by heavenward | Oct 24, 2021 | Blog
Nielsen Family Autumn 2021 Update Dear Friends, It’s mid-October and we are well into Autumn. For us here in Lake Chapala, this means our beautiful rainy season is coming to an end. Clouds still lace the sky, but rainstorms have slowly come to a stop. To us, this has...
by heavenward | Sep 21, 2019 | Blog
The 5 part mini-series “The Family,” launched by Netflix last month, is presented in the trailer and intro as an expose of some secretive quasi-Christian cult that operates under cover in Washington DC and other places of power. I decided to watch it out of sheer...
by heavenward | Apr 10, 2019 | Blog
“The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great” by Ben Shapiro is scholarly, no-holds-barred analysis of where we are and where we have come from. His contention is that Judeo-Christian values and Greek reasoning are the twin pillars upon...
by heavenward | Jan 12, 2019 | Blog, Featured
This is a stunningly beautiful poem that speaks so much to me of the power of godly friendship. The author and narrator is Cori Jean. You can hear and see more of here work at: the Cori Jean...
by heavenward | May 6, 2018 | Blog
I was asked the question once again the other day. It came from one of my kids, all who have helped me hone my theology to a shard edge over the years. “Daddy, why do bad things happen? Why doesn’t God stop all bad things from happening so we can all be happy?” Leave...
by heavenward | May 5, 2018 | Blog
I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus… As I watched the movie “The Passion of the Christ,” I finally got the answer to a question my 10 year old daughter has asked me countless times: “Daddy, what if you could go back in time and be any one you wanted to be?”...
by heavenward | May 5, 2018 | Blog
The older I get, the more I have come to believe that just showing up is 90% of the solution to life’s problems. Though a great deal may hang in the balance of the remaining 10%, not enough can be said for the simple art of engagement. So much of life is in just...
by heavenward | Apr 1, 2018 | Blog
Easter is just around the corner and my heart is overflowing with appreciation for the death and resurrection of my Lord and Savior. Who Jesus is and what He did seems more precious to me now than ever. Once again, as I focus on the story of the cross, I am captivated...
by heavenward | Feb 7, 2018 | Blog
It was the best part Liam Neeson ever played, the best film Steven Spielberg ever directed, and the Best Picture of 1993. So good was this film that it is ranked 8th among the 100 best American films of all time. It showed us all that even in the darkest of times a...
by heavenward | Jun 16, 2017 | Blog
If I thought God wasn’t the most exciting and interesting person in the universe, I would probably look elsewhere for another God. After all, that is what worship is all about: finding someone worth giving your all and “throwing down” all you have and putting it all...
by heavenward | May 7, 2017 | Blog
I’ve never ventured to share this story before. It’s one of my my “naked faith” experiences I had while on the mission field in Asia. As you will see (if you bear with me through the long narrative) it is “Outside the Box” of normal human experience, at least in the...
