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God’s “Reason”
I have a friend who was cleaning light fixtures at work. They were embedded in this ledge thing really close to the top of the ceiling. She was up on a ladder, cleaning away, when the ladder fell away from her. She managed to hold onto the ledge with both hands and just ended up hanging there “like a monkey.” She hung for a couple of minutes, arms aching, praying to God someone would come by, but she knew it was unlikely. Finally, she realized she had to let go. (And no, this isn’t a cheesy “letting go” analogy, so stick with me). 🙂
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Fighting the Lies
This is the story of how I learned a new lesson: Don’t let anyone tell you who you are but God. If people have tried to tell you who you have been, who you are, or who you will be, yet they were totally, painfully, and damagingly off, then you know what I mean.
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Greater Than Self
How often do we do this: Worry more about whether or not WE are making an impact, than if God is? Want to make sure we are drawing people to OURSELVES, not to God? Are interested in our OWN names, not His? I would've answered these questions, "No way"—until this past week.
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Serving God Overseas Doesn’t Make Me Better
Righteousness has nothing to do with geography. This may seem obvious, but I think that sometimes we who come from an area of the world that is so “blessed by God” can forget this. Also, as we often revere those who “give it all up” to serve Him, we start to think that righteousness may have to do more with what country you’re in. Even more so, if you’re one of those people in another country. I’m in Taiwan.
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Hush Little Baby
This is a prayer for the new year: All helpless and new, scrubbed fresh and clean, the year slides into being with a few cheers and some tears, and not nearly enough prayer.
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Too Stressed to Deck the Halls?
Tis the season to be stressed, Fa la la la la, la la la la…
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Marriage Talk Topics (Whether You’re Married Or Not)
Before my husband and I got engaged, we googled top reasons for divorce. Before I would say “yes” to his proposal, I wanted to know what we were up against (yes, I did make him wait—three weeks—between the time he proposed and the time I said yes, but that’s a whole other story). I can’t remember the exact answers we found, but when I googled it today, the top reasons seem pretty similar to the topics we discussed before marriage. So, my question to you is: have you discussed these with your spouse, potential spouse, or even just thought through the answers for yourself?
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What Makes Christian Fiction Christian Fiction?
There are a lot of theories out there on what makes a certain book fit into the Christian fiction category. Is it that it’s been written by a Christian author? Is it that it’s been published by a Christian publishing house? Is it that the message of Christianity is found somewhere within the pages?
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Tasting and Seeing
Years ago, I went to a conference where Louie Giglio held up an apple and took a bite. “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” he said (Psalm 34:8). I don’t know how he made that apple look so delicious, but he made me hungry for an apple with just one bite. As the week went on, I grew hungry for God, too. The illustration stuck with me through the years. God needs to be tasted and proved in an intimate way. We can’t just say that we know Him; we must taste and see that He is good. (On a random note: as I was googling around on…
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Bounce Your Heart
I don’t know the statistics on women and pornography, but I’m not naïve enough to think that we don’t struggle with it. Not to the same proportion as men, but it’s still a problem for us. I’m also not naïve enough to think that because more men struggle with it that makes us women more holy. We’ve just got to compare the equivalent thing for women, and we’ll see how not holy we really are. So, what is that equivalent thing? Well, men are moved visually, and women are moved emotionally. Hmmm, something that moves us emotionally. Watch this clip of Joy Eggerichs if you don’t already know where I’m…