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Life in the Rearview Mirror
There’s nothing normal as we head toward the end of 2020. We long for “normal.” We want things to go back to the way they were in February 2020, or October 2019, because no matter how hard things were then, at least we understood our known normal.
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Sexuality and Faith: Male and Female in God’s Good Design
Recently, a colleague and I brought together more than 20 seminary scholars, expert therapists, and researchers in specific areas of sexuality to form a written compilation that released this month from Kregel Academic. The title is Sanctified Sexuality: Valuing Sex in an Oversexed World. One endorser described each chapter as being like a “TED Talk” in each writer’s area of expertise. All contributors agreed to donate profits to the Institute for Sexual Wholeness. So, sales support a good cause. The book’s topics include a theology of the human body; gender; gender dysphoria; identity; same-sex attraction; adolescent sexuality; celibacy; cohabitation; contraception; human dignity; infertility; marital sexuality; divorce/remarriage; rape/#MeToo/#ChurchToo, how to have conversations with…
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One White Woman’s Thoughts on Being Multi-Cultural
“Before you go and live in Guatemala to study Spanish, you need to read this book,” my friend advised. Easily detecting my time-is-of-the-essence-say-it-like-it-is-I-can-do-this-on-my-own base culture, she knew I needed a multi-cultural “crash course” before my extended stay in Guatemala. As she is a second-generation missionary having served more than fifty years in Latin America, I heeded her advice, and I’m glad I did. Unknown cultural blinders fell from my eyes when I read her recommendation, From Foreign to Familiar: A Guide to Understanding Hot- and Cold-Climate Cultures. The multi-cultural information gleaned from this book not only made me aware of what I had been doing wrong while serving in U.S.…
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Finding peace, joy, and contentment in the Son
Philippians 4:1–9 is part of the lectionary readings for the nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, which is October 11th. In this passage, Paul addressed his readers in Philippi with several endearing phrases. He called them his “brothers and sisters” (v. 1), as well as his “dear friends.” The apostle told the Philippians that he cared for them and desired to see them. He also described them as the source of his “joy.” Likewise, they were the basis for the eternal reward, or “crown,” he would one day receive in heaven for evangelizing the lost. Paul could have commanded his readers to “stand firm in the Lord.” Instead, the apostle encouraged the…
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Good House Keeping for the soul: a Word of Encouragement
Sometimes cleaning the house is not pretty. We recently bought a house that had not been lived in for some time. In fact, we learned that the woman who lived here before us was a genuine hoarder. Someone had bought the house, cleaned it up quite a bit and it was totally empty. However…there was still some serious cleaning to do. We opened kitchen drawers to find ancient kitchen towels and cleaning supplies. Of course, we found remnants of bugs, namely roaches. Yeah, no need to go in to detail. Bugs are no fools, so they set up camp in a nice reliable spot, like an unused home. Anyway, suffice…
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Lectio Divina – An Ancient Practice Revisited
Last week during a conference a small group of women met to pray for the meetings being held in tandem to our prayer meeting. At the beginning of the meeting I was asked to do “lectio divina” with the group. I explained the practice and proceeded to lead the group in a reading from II Corinthians 4:7-10, 16-18. I followed a standard “lectio divina” order. The group was quiet; the scripture penetrating. At one point I could hardly continue reading because of the impact the passage was having on me the reader. We finished and sat in silence, then one of the women broke the silence by simply saying –…
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Fall Fashion, Ugly Runway Models and the Battle for Beauty
(and a Mako Fujimura photo essay on why we need beauty to flourish) No woman I know wants to look unattractive. As fall ushers in sweater weather, we’re in the stores seeking styles and colors that make us feel good.
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You Need This: 3 Truths About Self-Care
How can we practice self-care in a world gone mad? Here are three truths to guide us in self-care.
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Recognizing Sinful Patterns
here do our sinful patterns come from? Scripture is quite clear that our sin comes from the evil desires of our old nature. James 1:15 Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death.
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Our past, present, and future in Christ
Philippians 3:4–14 is part of the lectionary readings for the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, which is October 4th. Paul began the chapter with the exhortation to his readers to “rejoice in the Lord” (v. 1). Joy is a major theme that is stressed throughout the apostle’s letter (1:4, 18, 25; 2:2, 17–18; 3:1; 4:1, 10). In 3:1, Paul encouraged his fellow Christians to rejoice because they belonged to the Lord Jesus. Their awareness of their baptismal union with the Son would enable the apostle’s readers to resist the legalistic tendencies of his doctrinal adversaries. Paul referred to the antagonists as “dogs” (v. 2), those who do “evil,” and “mutilators of…
