It is said that a ship traveling even one degree off course can end up on a completely different continent. Traveling from San Francisco to L.A. one degree off will cause you to end up 6 miles off course, and from San Francisco to Washington D.C. would have you end up in Boston. One degree seems so trivial, but stay the course long enough, and you end up on a path to a completely different destination than you may have originally hoped.
Read MoreA new buzzword in the church world (at least in America, which is all I can personally speak to), is “multiethnic.” A growing number of Christians want to be part of a multiethnic church, a place with “diverse” worship, a body of believers that resembles the beautiful picture John paints for us in his Revelation 7 vision.
Read MoreI’ve always wanted to be the kind of woman who starts her day off by reading the Bible, praying, and drinking coffee. When I see photos on Instagram of girls posting highlighted Bible pages alongside a cozy coffee cup, I always wish that I had that kind of life.
Read MoreI waited outside the church to greet people after giving my presentation on hurricane relief programs. Several in the crowd came to shake my hand. Some asked questions. An older lady approached: taking my hand in hers, she said, “Keep doing the Lord’s work, sweetheart.” She smiled, patted my arm and kept walking toward the parking lot.
Read MorePromises can be made in haste or wisely with understanding. Today, I want to take a look at how words can affect our lives. I am an outspoken gal, who was always told I talk too much. Lately, God has been placing seeds in my heart about wise speech.
Read MoreThe word theology sounds pretty daunting to understand. It’s a word we try to avoid and steer off into another topic which we may feel a little bit more comfortable with. When we think about the word ‘theology’ we tend to think about Biblical academics, Christian history, and a lot of other subjects that we may think that is too difficult or irrelevant to jump into.
Read MoreLet’s be real--most of us don’t like criticism. As a struggling perfectionist, I personally hate it when someone tells me I’m doing something wrong. I have a tendency to focus on the negative, even if 90% of the feedback was positive. Because no matter how true the words may be, criticism often leaves me feeling like a failure. But I’ve learned from experience that without a healthy dose of criticism, we can’t grow.
Read MoreTo kick off this year, I thought I would do something memorable. After all there are only so many turns-of-the-decade that we get to embrace in our lives. I tend to be spontaneous on holidays, and there was a nearby mountain with a short but steep climb calling to me out of the window of my holiday accommodation. My overreaching tenacity and idealization of the moment overtook my unathletic reality and I set off, dreaming of enjoying a God’s-eye view of the world on this special morning.
Read MoreSome of my favorite books of the Bible are the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). As Christians, we are called to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ (Philippians 1:27). When reading about how Jesus spoke, taught, and lived in his 33 years of life on Earth, it gives me guidance on how to attempt to mirror my own life.
Read MoreA memory popped up on my Snapchat, and I ended up down a rabbit memory hole, thumbing through my snap history back to when I first downloaded the app. The posts were snapshots of a girl with a smile, a witty comment, thriving through her high school years. Those posts offered tribute to a false narrative, the small controlled glimpse into my life I allowed my peers to see.
Read MoreThe simple thought of introducing myself to a room full of people makes my heart race. Even though this is something I have done countless times, it never gets any easier. I usually go over what I’m going to say to introduce myself in my head, and it usually ends up being something short and sweet with the possibility of getting a bit awkward.
Read MoreFor most of my life, I’ve thought that discussing politics wasn’t a polite thing to do. There’s not a particular reason behind this thought. It’s just something that I’ve absorbed over the years. It may be because I feel, like I’m sure a lot of people do, that talking about politics causes conflicts.
Read MoreA few years ago, I had the beautiful privilege of teaching God’s Word at the local women’s shelter and gave a glimpse of my story to them hoping to encourage and strengthen their walks with Jesus. Later that night, fiercely overanalyzing everything I told them, these words became even more real: “Jesus not only saves us from our past but saves us from what we would have become.”
Read MoreWhat would Jesus do? In this time we are living in, this is a question we may need to be asking ourselves a little more frequently.
Read MoreI met Dionne while working for a humanitarian aid organization on an island southeast of Haiti, called Dominica, assisting with recovery after Hurricane Maria hit in September 2017. It was unlike any storm Dominica had ever encountered and the losses were immense. This storm tore the roofs off houses, the wind stripped the jungle canopy bare, and anything that wasn’t a root crop was destroyed. Landslides and flash floods damaged the island’s water and sewage systems, contaminating many water sources.
Read MoreAs I was writing out Scripture the other day, I settled in Philippians 2:12-18. I'm going to write it out for you because I love the passage in its entirety, but if you have a Bible, open up on your own and read it in your version. Any time we can open up the word of God on our own, we need to do that, even if it's on a screen in front of us. Here are some things the Holy Spirit taught me through the study of this passage.
Read MoreWe’re always on the way to someplace or something or someone. Our sights are always set on what’s next. We channel our energy and time into getting through whatever is going on right now so that we can get to that. It’s getting through the Tuesdays and Wednesdays of life to get to the Saturdays and Sundays. But what if God wants us to savor those Tuesdays and Wednesdays, those times of “in between”? What do we miss when we just power through to the “end goal?”
Read MoreMy best friend calls me a well-digger. I’m not sure I fully understood what that meant until I heard a Christine Caine message from January’s Passion 2020 Conference. She talked about how God wants to dig into old ministries and do new things. He wants to create completely new ministries as well.
Read MoreWhen things don't go according to plan, my feelings tend to get involved. Whether it's feeling restless, lack of peace, fear, hopeless, or helpless to change the facts. Our feelings are strong and can be impossible to ignore at times.
Read MoreI’ve said “I love you” to three people. I’ve been heartbroken over two of them. And by the real meaning, I only love one. By that math, that means I’m with the one I really love, right? Not quite. But this isn’t a “woe is me” story about breaking up and losing trust and not believing in love anymore. It’s about forgiving better and loving more.
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