Key Truths - Page 11

Mist rises from yellow water, reflecting a hazy yellow sunrise sky. Dark trees behind the mist stand between sky and pond.

A sign and a wonder: The amazing grace cycle

Post published:December 5, 2020
Post category:From: The Esther Blessing
Post last modified:April 11, 2025

One wintry day, I finished the rough draft of a book manuscript titled, “The Esther Blessing.” The next morning, the God of all grace celebrated with me.

The bread and the cup: loaf of brown bread, with a piece cut off and broken in two, beside antique pewter goblet, on unpressed linen cloth

Mystery and life: The covenant meal

Post published:November 27, 2020
Post category:Knowing and Going with God
Post last modified:April 9, 2024

We who have confessed Jesus as Lord may have taken communion many times. But in observing the ritual – and gazing on the picture it paints – how often have we failed to plunge in?

Twin waterfalls flowing as one, in a lush green setting at Ricketts Glen State Park, Benton, Pennsylvania

The great righteousness-justice divide

Post published:October 24, 2020
Post category:From: We Confess!Healing from Toxic Church
Post last modified:April 2, 2025

Ultimately, collectively, the church quenched the Spirit’s voice in order to embrace the society’s values. The church began to preach - and to try to live - a righteousness unencumbered with justice. But. God.

Sun's piercing rays shining down through jungle canopy

Humble your soul, release your spirit

Post published:October 9, 2020
Post category:My Story Spirit-to-spirit with God
Post last modified:January 13, 2025

God saw my stifled spirit. He saw my confused soul. He’s teaching me to act on my spirit's yes even when my soul is screaming no. For then his life can flow.

Poppies by the seashore at dawn - one of them reaching up above the others and framed by the sun's light

So blinded for so long, I choose light

Post published:September 18, 2020
Post category:My Story Trauma and Grief
Post last modified:March 12, 2025

Even when people I love fight against it, I choose light. As I dare to go with God where fear, obligation and guilt forbid, I find hope and joy. I choose life.

Closeup of person's hand, holding a black pen and making a lengthy checklist on graph paper

Checklists, idols and loving God

Post published:July 7, 2020
Post category:Healing from Toxic Church
Post last modified:January 12, 2025

The preacher urged people to love the Lord with all their hearts. Yet, tragically, he himself did not know how to do it. He could only offer a checklist.

A streak of lightning flashes through dark blue storm clouds.

God who loves fiercely

Post published:June 14, 2020
Post category:Knowing and Going with God
Post last modified:July 16, 2024

Nothing about our Lord is casual. The day he came down on Sinai has this in common with the day Jesus died in our place: Both show how fiercely God loves.

Closeup of cannon from the cover of my book, We Confess! The Civil War, the South, and the Church

Tell us about past events

Post published:June 6, 2020
Post category:From: We Confess!
Post last modified:August 1, 2024

What one bewildered, battered woman found, and dared to write, before patterns from the past began to replay in the present in such a visible, alarming way.

A tiny person stands on a distant mountaintop at dawn, under a vast and brilliantly colored sky.

Prepare to meet with God

Post published:May 12, 2020
Post category:Knowing and Going with God
Post last modified:June 29, 2024

Some things, you can’t wait to tell God. You run to him with the news. The Lord who invites you to meet with him delights in your coming to talk. He delights in your coming to hear. For this God has important things to say to you too.

Dreamlike painting of the low-hanging branches of a huge weeping willow

Seeking shade

Post published:April 27, 2020
Post category:Living Life My Story
Post last modified:November 27, 2023

Today, I need to stand in the shadow of something taller than me - something sturdy and living, deep-rooted and lasting, that whispers timeless secrets as the wind passes through.