Key Truths - Page 5

In a dark, eerie forest, one weak ray of a hazy setting sun shines through the almost-bare trees.

Spiritual sundowner’s: When darkness overwhelms you

Post published:November 11, 2022
Post category:Trauma and Grief
Post last modified:May 13, 2024

Darkness can increase disorientation. It can increase anxiety and depression. Can something similar be true spiritually? Can spiritual sundowner’s be a thing?

Set free: Closeup of woman silhouetted by the hazy sun behind her. Her upraised arms are chained, but the chains have just broken.

The truth will set you free

Post published:October 27, 2022
Post category:Knowing and Going with God
Post last modified:January 19, 2025

Since childhood, I’ve treasured Jesus’ words, “the truth will set you free.” Now I see this diamond in its setting. I hear the urgency in his cry to us all.

With the sun behind her, low in the sky, a woman mountain climber rests for a moment, hanging from the lines that attach her to the cliff.

Mary Magdalene stuck her neck out

Post published:September 25, 2022
Post category:From: Return to Your Rest
Post last modified:August 1, 2024

Thank you, Mary Magdalene, for coming to Jesus. Your story shows: REST is humbly serving the One who always treats me with high respect, entrusts me with significant responsibility and involves me in things of first importance.

Seen through raindrops on glass, a hazy view of a weak sun in a sky full of gray clouds. Also hazy: the black silhouette of dark, hilly, overgrown terrain with what appears to be a church steeple rising behind it.

Witchcraft in the church

Post published:September 16, 2022
Post category:Healing from Toxic Church
Post last modified:December 14, 2024

In the church, those obsessed with manipulating, intimidating and dominating can pose as those serving God. And we can be very fooled for a very long time.

Against a snowy background stands a black iron gate, locked with multiple padlocks of different colors and shapes.

Shunning in the church

Post published:August 25, 2022
Post category:Healing from Toxic Church
Post last modified:January 12, 2025

Any group that shuns is withholding your deepest needs in order to control you. That’s the opposite of loving you. It’s people you trusted, trying to erase you.

White hatchback car, sitting at a gas pump in the dark

The most unwanted assignment

Post published:August 19, 2022
Post category:My Story
Post last modified:November 4, 2023

Sitting in my car at that gas station on that winter afternoon, staring at Isaiah 58:1, I began to cry ... Oh. Lord. Not. This. Assignment.

Homing pigeon soaring under white clouds

(c) jwmpap

Living by the Spirit

Post published:July 30, 2022
Post category:Spirit-to-spirit with God
Post last modified:January 13, 2025

A person can be a Christian, yet not live by the Spirit. Ah, but that's not what our Lord intends.

White dove with wings outstretched, against a swirling, shimmering background of light in shades of blue

Dear weary one, can we talk about the spirit realm?

Post published:July 22, 2022
Post category:From: Return to Your Rest Spirit-to-spirit with God
Post last modified:December 8, 2024

When it comes to dealing with anything spirit, the church has a long history of ignoring, twisting, adding to and taking away from the truth that gives us rest.

Rejection: Unsmiling woman wearing dressy top and beaded necklace, giving thumbs down

When Christian leaders reject God

Post published:May 30, 2022
Post category:Healing from Toxic Church My Story
Post last modified:July 19, 2024

I saw it for the first time in a meeting I called and led. No. Actually: I realized then what I had been seeing for years. It broke my heart. I’ve tried to tell the story twice before. Both times, I described what happened in that meeting, but did not include any backstory. Now it’s time to write the whole story. Bring honor to your name, holy Lord.

Just ahead in a forest, two paths diverge.

Journey to a divided heart

Post published:May 20, 2022
Post category:From: The Elijah Blessing
Post last modified:October 24, 2024

In the beginning, a divided heart may look very much like an undivided one. It’s as if you’ve reached a subtle fork in the road, where the two paths before you appear to run side-by-side. It seems you can take both paths at the same time. It seems you don’t have to choose. Lord, help us to learn from a king who did not.