Praying for the Enemy

Jesus is really good at taking an issue to the extreme, am I right?  Did that guy take your coat?  Well, give him your shirt too! (Luke 6:29)  Did you think about that woman with anger?  You just killed her in your heart!  (Matthew 5:21-22)  You think you are following the Law?  YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE LAW! (pretty much the whole first four books of the New Testament)

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Traitor

As the new year started, I dove into the only real New Year’s resolution I made for 2018: actually and intentionally reading the Bible every day on my own. Not for class, not in church, not for the sake of my son, not at the prompting of my husband or prayer group. One might think as a seminarian, missionary, Christian blogger, yada yada yada I would already be doing this. One would be wrong. Well, we’re 23 days into January as I write this and I’m pleasantly relieved to report that we’re going strong. I chose, somewhat randomly, to start in the book of Joshua and it’s been fascinating. Having grown up around church, I am often struck now reading the Old Testament through adult eyes and realizing that many of the stories were presented through unnecessarily rose-colored glasses, sometimes changing their meaning altogether. (Judges, for example, not what I […]

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New Year, New Me

“New Year, New Me!” It’s a phrase you see and hear about all over the place this time of the year. Everyone is setting out to make new goals and setting out to change themselves. Some goals will stick and others won’t. It’s a time where people redefine themselves and ask the question – who am I?

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Remember to Remember

November is my favorite month because for me it is the beginning of a two-month celebration! It begins with celebrating cooler weather and pumpkin-everything, then my birthday, Thanksgiving, the time it becomes truly acceptable to listen to Christmas music, Christmas (which is not just a day, but a season), and New Year’s. I just love holidays! And I probably overwhelm everyone I know with my crazy love for them.

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Putting on our New Selves

Ephesians 4:22, 24 (NIV)  says, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires… and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

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Lessons from the Wilderness

“This is my prayer in the desert, when all that’s within me feels dry.  This is my prayer in my hunger and need.  My God is the God who provides.”  (Desert Song, Hillsong United) I often think the Bible is filled with stories of people doing good that I could never achieve or evil that I would never fall to.  I know there is much to learn in those stories, but I have to admit, they don’t always feel personally relevant to me.  The journey of the Israelites from Egypt into the Promised Land (Exodus 6- Joshua 4) is not one of those stories.

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We’re a Messy Church

When I first started reading the Bible, I was very confused about some of the great people of faith doing questionable things. Why were these people (I thought) I was supposed to look up to morally committing such terrible sins? Was the Bible condoning these atrocious things they did? Why were people offering up their daughters to be raped? Why did Noah get drunk and lay naked after the ark? Why did Solomon take so many wives and concubines? The Hall of Faith, as Hebrews 11 is often referred to, lists murderers, adulterers, and liars, yet these people were commended for their faith. I had first assumed these Bible stories were supposed to be about all good, upright, moral people and how we should emulate them. But I was wrong. The Bible isn’t a book about good people, but about a good God who chooses to use messy people.

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