Here’s something I did not know for a long time, because I was afraid to look: In letter after letter, the man with the reputation for putting women down, instead treats women as fully human, fully adult – and welcome into the fullness of the redemption that is ours in Jesus Christ.
You pursue truth differently when you're desperate, when your life hinges on what you find – and your spirit is released to resonate with the Spirit of God.
Why is it vital that we recover and treasure a prayer Jesus told us to pray – but our minds can’t seem to grasp, and our emotions can’t seem to embrace?
I’ve learned a lot about rest from people in Scripture. Seeing their lives with fresh eyes, I’ve seen things I had not realized: How blessed rest is. How different it looks from what we often think. How much in our lives can keep us from it. Here are 12 “signposts” pointing us to rest, signposts placed on the path by people who came before.
My finicky and beloved cat Tessa lived for 17 years. She inspired this post one night in 2004 – the year I first found myself in a den with lions that tear people apart.
Maybe the church has become bewildering to you. Leaders you trusted and people you respected are acting in ways that do not reflect who Jesus is, nor what they profess to believe. They have turned on anyone among them who appears to threaten the status quo. What is going on?
Any number of motives can prompt leaders in our church systems to create an illusion that refuge for the abused exists, where it does not. “They say, ‘All is well, all is well,’ when it is not.” So how can we know?
Wilderness strips life bare. It knocks all the supports out from under us. Circumstances may scream at us - and we may scream at God - that he has brought us there to kill us. And yet, it's in the wilderness that we may hear him say, “I have carried you on eagles’ wings to bring you to myself.”
Darkness can increase disorientation. It can increase anxiety and depression. Can something similar be true spiritually? Can spiritual sundowner’s be a thing?
Since childhood, I’ve treasured what Jesus said in John 8:32. “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Yet somehow, till now, I have not seen the diamond in its setting, so to speak. I have not seen the import for us all.