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Too Young to Get Married: AWedding Anniversary Tribute
On the day I write this, it’s my wedding anniversary.You’re too young, they said. You’re making a mistake, they said. You don’t know whatlove is, they said. It’s harder than you think, they said. You’ll destroy your life, they said.He’ll never change, they said.And here we are 40 plus years later and we are still happily married.I was 17 when I met my husband. He rode in on a while horse, actually, no, it was a tansports addition Mazda. But it was cool—so cool. At 17 to have a boyfriend with a car, anapartment, and a “high paying” job, whoa, I hit the big time! It was a father’s nightmarefor…
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Releasing the Knowledge Trap
In reading and pondering John chapter 7, verse 18 stood out to me, “The one who speaks on his own authority, seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him is true, and in Him there is no falsehood.” Jesus is making a contrast with Himself (who was sent by God with His teaching and sought God’s glory) and others (who spoke on their own to glorify themselves). Others possibly started with some truth but used that truth to glorify themselves. I asked myself a question, “How do I use knowledge?” This question led to other questions: “What are some inappropriate uses of…
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The Sign Given to the Shepherds
This will be a sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:12-14)
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Silent Nights Suffering Nights
From heaven's height to manger low There is no distance the Prince of Peace won't go
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Releasing “Mom Guilt”
Once upon a time I served as an educator. While serving a special needs family, the mom revealed to me that she felt like her daughter’s disability was a punishment for her own sins. This mom was steeped in deep grief, somehow allowing herself to believe that she was personally responsible for her child’s cognitive disability. I knew her to be a healthy mom in a healthy home environment. She was actually a wealthy mom with all the comforts this modern world offers. Despite having the American dream, she was unable to enjoy the rich blessings of her life due to this story of guilt she had written for self. …
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A Plague in Egypt
Sunday School Chronicles. Me: Okay! We’ve spent a good amount of time talking and Moses and the Israelites. Before we hit the Exodus, raise your hands and tell me the plagues. Student 1: Water turning to blood! Me: Yes! Student 2: Frogs! Student 3: Darkness! *we continue to recap* Me: God used these plagues to say, “Nah! What you’re not gonna do is enslave my people AND worship false gods! Let me hit you with these plagues so you’ll know I’m not the one to mess with!”Student 2: How’d God’s spirit know it was lamb’s blood?Student 3: God knows who your ex-boyfriend is! Of course He knows what lamb’s blood…
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What’s Amazing about the Annunciation!
Trigger warning: sexual assault How we experience life embodied as sexed beings affects how we read the biblical text. So how do many women do so? We do so as those who have (a) been violated ourselves or (b) as those who live in close proximity with someone who is a survivor of such violation. According to RAINN, one out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. Contrast this with the one in 33 American men who have been victims of attempted or completed rape. Women are raped more than five times as often as men. And neither of these statistics…
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Overflowing with Thankfulness
Did you know that the book of Colossians is one of the most “thankful” books in the New Testament? The repeated emphasis on thanksgiving makes it so! Seven times in this short letter the Spirit of God reminds us through the writing of Paul that we should be continually grateful, even to the point of overflowing with thankfulness. But how is that possible? What would that look like? Thank God for Other Christians in Your Life Paul started out by saying this, “We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that…
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Four Keys to Keeping a Clear Conscience
(My daughter Holly Hawkins Shivers is the guest blog poster today.) The holidays are upon us and well, sometimes that means coming face to face with relationships that seem hard. It can also mean thinking about the past year and ways in which we want to do better. We’ve all had moments when we say or do something we second guess. Maybe you wake up in the middle of the night thinking of something you wish you hadn’t said. Or perhaps you are in the middle of a difficult life circumstance, and you just don’t know how to respond. You want to know that what you are doing is right…
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Do Not Be Afraid, I Am With You
Since my word for the year 2023 is “with,” I’m sharing a chapter entitled “With You” from my devotional Favored Blessed Pierced: A Fresh Look at Mary of Nazareth in preparation for the upcoming Advent season. So the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid.” Luke 1:30a The angel’s preface to his commissioning, “Do not be afraid,” is the most commonly repeated command in the Bible—with good reason, for we are people of fear. Last year, I finally admitted that I feel anxious when I travel. While I have the privilege of traversing the globe in my ministry to cross-cultural workers, I rarely travel alone. Still I worry. Will we make…
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A Historical Review: Black Women Who Won the Battle to Preach
Any review of women’s religious history is incomplete “without an adequate grasp of the groundbreaking work” of Black preaching women.[1] Historian Bettye Collier-Thomas in her book Daughters of Thunder: Black Women Preachers and Their Sermons, 1950–1979, explains that during the nineteenth century and the twentieth century, “in most black religious traditions, women won the battle to preach.”[2]
