As with all things in life, I never know how much I have or how much I need what I have until it is taken away. If you’ve been around for the past three and half years, you know how much my new church has helped me to heal, how it has been a place I’ve purposely built strong community, that it’s the place I work and serve, that it has meant the world to my children, and how I couldn’t love it more.
Read MoreDid you have a best friend growing up? Maybe you’re an adult and still have a best friend. I had a tumultuous relationship with the whole best friend idea. Being homeschooled in a small church didn’t leave a lot of options for finding the perfect best friend. I cried a lot of tears during my teenage years over relationships that were less than ideal. I had some people that were really good friends, but that was back in the day when we had to write letters by hand. My world really opened up when email became a thing!
Read MoreThe topic of one anothering naturally brings up a lot about suffering. We’ve been talking about how to weep with those who weep or how to encourage others who are suffering by singing to them. If life were all roses, we wouldn’t need each other nearly as much. Of course, we are to celebrate with those who have something to celebrate, laugh with those who are laughing, and rejoice with those who are rejoicing. But those seem to come a bit more naturally. It’s the suffering that’s hard to sit in. It’s when people are suffering that we need reminders of how to deal with it.
Read MoreJoin Thelma Nienhuis and I as we talk about her journey through infertility, what she's learned through it, and how we can help our friends in the same struggle.
Read MoreBut do we want to stay there? I don’t think so. I think Biblical lament is meant to lead us back to God and to the joy that can be found in our salvation.
Read MoreBe kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love and then continues to list off a whole list of ways we can do that. We could spend a whole season just in this passage. But one has kept returning to mind. Its found in verse 15. Weep with them that weep.
Read MoreHave you ever looked at a family and really wanted to be a part of it? Maybe you had a rough family growing up or you just weren’t super close and your best friend’s family seemed awesome. Or maybe it was just a part of that family that you wished for - being told you were loved, or the hugs, or the games, or the laughter.
Read MoreToday we’re going to talk about the feeling of being abandoned by God and the three questions the psalmists asks of God in Psalm 77.
Read MoreDo you ever talk to yourself?
I do it all the time. They say really smart people talk to themselves, so I’m going to go with that theory. Most of the time, I have a negative narrative going. I’m very hard on myself and if you could spend an hour in my thoughts you would quickly see that I’m harder on myself than anyone else.
Read MoreI see you standing there in the corner.
You’ve failed. Again. You know it and I know it. You gave into your flesh, into temptation. You’re living in despair. You’ve doubted God in the middle of trials. The why doesn’t really matter as much as, we have found ourselves here. Standing in the corner. In the shadows.
Read MoreI am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.
Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.
My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.
Read MoreThe Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Read MoreI’ve told you before on this podcast that I hate the night - that I used to be so scared at night. But I don’t know if I’ve ever told you why.
Read MoreBlessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
Read MoreHow long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
Read MoreIn our last episode, we talked about being slandered or forsaken by people that you love. But more importantly we looked at how God had built a pavilion, a secret place for those who needed to run away to Him. Those situations definitely make me feel like running away to God. But that’s not the only time I wish for a secret pavilion.
Read MoreHave you ever stood in a checkout line and been surprised by the fact that someone you thought was perfectly human is supposedly an alien?
The world is full of misinformation. And it seems trite and maybe even funny when a magazine tells us someone is an alien, or prints a photoshopped picture. But what if the misinformation is about you?
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