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Cultivating Friendships & Female Allies
Listen to the nightly news, read just-released statistics, talk to a few friends––and you’ll hear over and over again the hard realities of mandated isolation, increased challenges in daily life, and mounting obstacles as working women navigate the lingering effects of this pandemic. Now more than ever we need to forge bonds of sisterhood with the women in our circles.
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What Would Jesus Really Do?
I recently met a woman who works for a major U.S. airline. She worked as a “stewardess” with them for over twenty years. She said when she first started working for them, the stewardesses wore hot pants, high boots, and cropped tops in flight. In her words, “It was Hooters in the sky.” She (we) is grateful the dress code has changed for flight attendants. We’ve heard the old saying, “The world is going to hell in a hand basket.” Maybe, but at least the #MeToo movement has made strides in the right direction. Or so I thought. Because just when I thought we were turning the corner on this…
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Our Shepherd
“Which one of you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go look for the one that is lost until he finds it? Then when he has found it, he places it on his shoulders, rejoicing. (Luke 15:4–5 NET) The 23rd Psalm is one of the most familiar and dearest passages of the Bible. It is a beautiful poem about God, the shepherd, and his people, the sheep, that speaks to humanity’s desires and fears. As such, it is a lovely reminder that the LORD is a merciful and compassionate God. Furthermore, it reminds us that,…
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Do you have eyes to see?
I’m happy to have as my guest today Lacie Phillips…. More about her below: Recently, I heard a sermon that did what every good teaching can do: it made me think deeply. The text for the message was Mark 10, at the end of which we meet Bartimaeus—son of Timaeus—a blind beggar. As Jesus, his disciples, and a crowd are leaving Jericho, they cross paths with Bartimaeus sitting by the side of the road. When he hears that Jesus is near, Bartimaeus cries out, “Jesus, the son of David, have mercy on me.” The crowd responds by scolding Bartimaeus and telling him to be quiet; but a second time he shouts out…
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Compassion Reflects Overflowing Joy in the Lord
One of the most amazing verses in the whole Bible is 2 Corinthians 8:2! Paul, writing to the Christians living in southern Greece, discusses the offering being collected by the Christians in northern Greece for those suffering terrible hardship in Jerusalem. “Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.” Oh, my, that is so radical! Extreme poverty giving generously? Those early Christians are an amazing example to all believers, including you and me, of the dynamic difference that God’s grace can make in the mindset of His people when it comes to provision. Gratefully receiving and generously giving comes from…
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The State of Refugee Resettlement in 2019
“This isn’t a school, it’s a family.” Those were the words of one of my Muslim refugee students at the end of our English classes one year. She hugged me warmly and when we said goodbye, I wasn’t saying farewell to a student, but to a friend. Not every refugee is as fortunate as my friend. Many are languishing in camps, waiting for a solution to their displacement. The refugee crisis has faded into the background in the West in the midst of Brexit, a U.S. government shutdown, a changing political landscape, and other localized crises. So you may believe one of these misconceptions about refugees: 1. Misconception: The world refugee…
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Mister Rogers and the Hunger for God
“You’ve made this day a special day by just your being you. There is no person in the whole world like you, and I like you just the way you are.” —Mister Rogers, to every person as we watched his show. With the news that a documentary about Fred Rogers (Public Television’s “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”) will be released this summer, and a movie about him starring Tom Hanks will be in production soon, there has been a good bit of buzz in social media recently. I keep coming across articles about him and links to videos that often move me to grateful tears for this amazing man. “Mister Rogers” had…
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I’ll Take Narnia’s Aslan over The Shack’s Papa Any Day: What William P. Young is Missing
This week The Shack is (still) #1 on the New York Times Best-Seller list and, after three weeks, still in the top five at the movie box office. With unforgettable images Young draws a picture of God’s compassion for a bruised reed of a man who has lost his little girl in a crime of unspeakable violence and murder. The God of all comfort prepares Mack's favorite food in the kitchen. Skips rocks across the lake with him. Wears old flannel shirts. Young’s story takes us inside Mack’s grief and shows how God’s tender, creative soul-care heals and restores. Throughout almost thirty years of rheumatoid arthritis, the wanderings…
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The Lord is My Shomer
The Hebrew word “shamar” (shaw-mar) means to guard, watch, keep, observe, beware. It has a large range of uses in the Old Covenant of the Bible derived from the primary significance of keeping watch or guarding. Is it distinctly the shepherd’s word – the shepherd keeps watch-guard over his sheep. Someone that shamars is a shomer. That is, the Lord is our shomer!
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Quiet Presence: Comfort Those Who Hurt
Yesterday two dear friends called with heartbreaking news—news that will change the course of their lives. And as a “word” person, I’m profoundly aware of how inadequate words are at such times. In fact, offering comfort can be as much about what we don’t say as what we do…. An obstetrician friend told me that during his first year of medical practice, he sat with a couple who lost a baby at twenty-three weeks. Feeling at a total loss for words, he sat in silence and wept with them. He felt surprised when they later thanked him profusely saying, “You said just the right words.” He wondered “What words? I…
