Music is my life blood. Like many, I turn to it for comfort and encouragement in storms, strength during the hour of temptation. Worship is a powerful way to connect with God and fight mental battles and in some cases worship can help with the mental symptoms of some physical battles (along with a healthy diet and exercise.) Here is ten of my favorites, in a fair alphabetical order. 1) “Amazing Grace” (My Chains are God) by John Newton (chorus by Chris Tomlin) Video Lyrics 2) “Beautiful” by MercyMe Video Lyrics 3) “Esther” by Esterlyn (Luke Caldwell) Video Lyrics Note: Esterlyn’s lead singer is theRead More →

An internet meme of unknown-to-me origin, if it came from a Christian, puts its foot in its mouth with this “clever” zinger of a sound byte: “Grace didn’t save Noah, …obedience did.” At best, this is a half-truth (and a half-truth is usually dangerous.) Hebrews 10:38 tells “Now the just shall live by faith;” and HE 11:7 continues, “By faith Noah . . . prepared an ark for the saving of his household.” And Genesis 6:8 (KJV) says “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” (Thanks to Alice Spencer for supplying me that verse.) Walking in faith does mean obeying God, butRead More →

As some of you may know, my husband and I suffer from infertility, both male and female factors. Sometimes, I don’t know what is more painful, when your dreams of biological children start to die inside you or when others give up on you ever conceiving. I turned thirty-four earlier this month and my husband will be thirty-five next month. We’ve been married (and also together) for thirteen years as of July. My ghost babies are growing up so fast. Twelve, nine, who knows? If you’re not infertile, you may not get it, what it’s like to grieve for children who were not only neverRead More →

Note from Andrea: This article concludes a two-part series on prayer by a special guest blogger, my sweet, thoughtful husband, Adam Graham. The first part was posted last Thursday. Superficially, the Kendrick Brothers’ latest film, War Room appears to say, “If you pray in faith, your marriage will be saved. If your marriage isn’t going well, it’s because you haven’t prayed enough.” We’ve known people who have had marriages fall apart in spite of their prayers and efforts to fight for that marriage, so that doesn’t ring true.   I don’t think that’s the intended point. When the film opens,  Elizabeth is a realtor andRead More →

By Adam Graham Note from Andrea: This article begins a two-part series on prayer by a special guest blogger, my sweet, thoughtful husband. The second part will post next Thursday. The Kendrick Brothers’ latest film, War Room, finished second at last weekend’s box office. The film focuses on the power of prayer. For many, that’s a problem. Some have accused the film of preaching a prosperity gospel that says all you have to do is pray in faith and your family’s problems will all go away. I see the film as a mostly positive illustration of the power of prayer, but I also see howRead More →