Code blue! Breathing crises in the church
When God’s people push against, instead of moving with, his Spirit, he knows the situation is dire. He sounds the alarm: My people aren’t breathing! Code blue!
Breath of God – key to life
Receiving and releasing the Breath of God is key to getting the toxins out and the life-giving stuff in, no matter what you're going through.
Dear traumatized one, I pray you float
Was there grief in that ark? Yes! Was there tension? Absolutely. And anger. And fear. So many emotions; such great loss. Yet through it all, they were upheld.
Illusionists! The abusers we have not seen
Some illusionists fool us to amuse us. Abusers and abusive systems fool us to control us. Freedom and life hinge on seeing the illusionists we have not seen.
Divorcing: When God does what he hates
Once, in Malachi, God may have said that he hates divorce. Repeatedly, in Jeremiah, God reveals how much he hates divorcing. Repeatedly, he laments the nonstop betrayals that did, and could, bring him to do it.
Treachery and divorce: When God sees betrayal
If you have been betrayed by a spouse: The God who sees you has been there. And as Malachi 2 tells us: The Lord hates treachery. The Lord defends the betrayed.
The Lord who breaks open the way
“She cannot say that!” the woman yelled. Half a world from my home, she forbade me to invite the churched to repent. Then, we watched the Lord break through.
Celebrity culture in the church
It’s so enticing, and so much a part of the US evangelical church culture. Yet the lure of celebrity can deceive us into agreeing with much that is not God.
The silencing of women and the snorts of God
“Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak.” The meaning of that quote from 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 is obvious, right? God silences women, and the inspired apostle Paul affirmed it. Or maybe, just maybe: The Lord and Paul both snort at the idea – and we have not known it.
Submit to such as these women
The greetings in Paul’s New Testament letters – the ones translators have altered and we often bypass – affirm women, as well as men, who minister as true servant leaders.