Recently, via the media, American Christians received a terrible taste of what the word “persecution” means to millions of our brothers and sisters around the world. People marching into some place you ought to be safe and ending your mortal life to express their direct objection to your faith. Of course, it also means churches meeting in secret, since it is illegal for you to gather with other believers for worship, being restricted in how you earn your living, risks of your home and business (of any sort) and church being torched because of your faith. It is rare for people in my area ofRead More →

Hi, my name is Andrea, and I am a wimp. So many people suffer so much worse than me, with bravery, faith, courage, hardly even seen them cry. Yet a little back pain and I want to rush straight to Heaven. A little pain in the ribs, where a deep breath hurts, and I succumb to tears, let it interfere with my work, keep me from accomplishing everything I should’ve done today. Whining, grumpy, snappy, all things we should never be. A little pain in the flesh and the fruits we should show–love, peace, joy, kindness, self-control–they seem to evaporate. It shouldn’t be. I shouldRead More →

“If you feel someone is judging you, feel free to judge them back and punish them until your wrath has been fully satisfied.” These words do not appear anywhere in the Bible. Yet how often do we, God’s people, behave like God said that? Who among us has never responded tit for perceived tat? We may do this based on assumptions founded on past experience or based on how we felt in response to something someone said. To begin with, the past isn’t a reliable predictor of the present and future, and the hurt we feel in response to someone’s words isn’t an innately reliableRead More →

How many of us have chosen which temptations our flesh is drawn toward? We’re all born sinners. What any of us chose is to walk in the sin and to embrace that tendency as an important-to-us piece of our identity. That is a difficult stronghold to break, whatever the sin is, and it can make it not feel at all like a choice. Disrespecting someone’s feelings is not an effective way to persuade them. Do we feel the need to ram it down every sinner’s throat that their feelings are wrong and they choose to give in to sin, even if they didn’t choose toRead More →

Do I personally wear long underwear? Why, yes, I do, but not as an outer garment. If another lady feels comfortable prancing around in pants that look like underwear to me, though, I figure I should leave that between her and God. It took God’s conviction to change my heart before I changed my mind and behavior on wardrobe issues, after all.   Let’s modestly stop the backbiting and the attacking one another for differing personal convictions and live at peace. Twitter version:[tweetthis]Let’s modestly not attack one another for differing convictions on women’s wear.[/tweetthis]