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Resources to Know About
PODCASTS, ARTICLES, AND BOOKS Article: Ever notice how both Adam and Eve got rebuked for their mutual sin (Gen. 3)? And how both Ananias and Saphira got in trouble for their mutual sin (Acts 5:9)? And how both Ahab and Jezebel had consequences for their mutual sin (2 Kings 9:10)? But only David gets rebuked for his crime against Bathsheba? See this article: “Blame David, Not Bathsheba. The Prophet Nathan Did: In the Book of Samuel, three key voices say he’s the guilty one, not her.” Dr. Carmen Imes, author of Bearing God’s Name (you can read here the interview I did with her when Bearing God’s Name came out) wrote the piece for Christianity Today.…
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Some Lessons from a Forty-Year-Old Marriage
This spring my husband and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. We are grateful to God for bringing us together and for His grace in our marriage. To celebrate, we wanted to find some trails in Colorado to hike. However, after looking for several weeks, we were unable to find any trails that would work. Unbeknownst to us, God had something else planned. A missionary agency contacted my husband to inform him Albania had requested some medical training in his specialty. The planning trip would need to take place during the time we had set aside to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. We felt God would have us postpone (or…
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Hang Onto Your Mummy!
A 5th Grade Sunday School Class talks about Lazarus and waiting.
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Ministry to the Broken-Hearted
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Did Jesus Have Women Disciples…and other questions
Were any of Jesus’s disciples women? Yes. Dorcas (Greek), also called Tabitha (Aramaic), lived in Joppa, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. We find Dorcas’s story beginning in Acts 9:36. And the author introduces her as “a disciple.” This reference to Tabitha is the only time in the NT that we find the feminine form of the Greek word, μαθήτρια. The plural masculine form of the word, “disciples,” appears many times in the NT, including in contexts where women are included in a group. So Tabitha is certainly not the only woman disciple in the NT. But in this case she is singled out. She lived with widows, ministered to widows, and clothed them with lovely…
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Casting the Vision for Lifestyle Disciplemaking
It happens over time in large and small Bible studies. Women are excited to study God’s Word. But as their knowledge accumulates, the next thing you know they are being snippy about the study questions or whose group they are in or the table decorations. I have seen it happen among godly women in very successful Bible studies. I call it restlessness because we easily get stuck in discipleship and forget our purpose for disciplemaking. I believe that is from Jesus calling us back to our purpose. This post will cast the vision for you to answer the call from the Lord and leap into lifestyle disciplemaking. Jesus followers become…
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Our Path to Purpose
What do Aristotle, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Bono of U2 have in common? They joined the many sojourners throughout history who have pursued transcendent purpose in life. As we journey through life, where would our path take us if we set our compass toward purpose-filled life?
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The Lies You Hear About Transgender
I am deeply concerned about how the cultural narrative about transgender keeps ratcheting up. I believe this is a massive display of spiritual warfare, where the enemy of our souls is screaming lies about gender and identity—especially to teens and younger and younger children. Jesus warned us that the devil’s agenda is to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10), and this deception about gender is, I believe, one of the most wicked and insidious deceptions he’s ever come up with. Consider some of the lies that have become commonplace: “People can be born into the wrong body.” This represents a thinking disorder, not a biological problem. There is no such…
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This is the Way, Walk in It
After twelve years of living and serving on a tropical southeast Asian island, my husband and I decided to return to the USA and transition into a new phase of ministry. I agonized over this decision for months. It consumed every prayer and conversation for I knew whatever path I chose would affect others. How thankful I am that God was my guide all those years ago (Psalm 48:14) and that he still leads me in the way I should go (Isaiah 48:17). Life has contained other big decisions like this one as well as many smaller choices such as whether to volunteer in the church nursery or teach a…
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Teaching Responsibilities
Prov 4-7 Parenting and teaching, just as in Solomon’s time, is fraught with the world’s dangers and Satan’s deceptive ways. Whether you are a parent, a grandparent, or a teacher, all must be attentive to giving the reasons and consequences of what happens when one does not follow correctly. Solomon said this is the wise counsel I leave to you: “The one who loves discipline loves knowledge, but the one who hates reproof is stupid.” [Prov 12:1] These chapters encourage us to help children to know the way they should go, and Prov 22:6 will repeat that idea. Here’s the reason why: the world is full of wolves, just as Jesus told the disciples. Therefore children must…