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In: abuse, Bible and Theology, Faith, Fear and Anxiety, God's love, Gospel, Grace, Prayer and Devotions

  For Christian women who struggle with feeling like we’re not enough. Warning: I cried. Are you enough? With God, you don’t have to be. He has enough. His love can make you enough. The poised, young professional woman in white came boldly before the throne of God, dragging alongside her a battered, bruised little girl in filthy rags. “Lord, I’m surrendering this to you, my broken, wounded heart. I caught her running away from you and thinking wrong things again, so I’ve taken her captive, brought her back, and am presenting her to you again. I know she’s not much, but she’s all IRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Lament, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering

O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, Happy the one who repays you as you have served us! Happy the one who takes and dashes Your little ones against the rock! Psalm 137:8-9, NKJV These shocking words are more likely to be quoted by atheists than Christians. Most with even a cursory knowledge of the faith knows this flies in the face of our teachings on revenge. If you’re reading it in a version that renders “Happy” as “Blessed,” understand why the NKJV turned “Blessed” into “Happy.” Too many verses–many of them right in the Psalms–describe God as gracious, loving, and full of compassionRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Grace, Lament, Prayer and Devotions, Sin and Holiness

You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you. Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none,  and for comforters, but I found none.(Psalm 69:19-20 ESV) God declared King David a man after his own heart. We might expect to find a man full of the fruits of the spirit. Instead we find a man who suffered much hardship, made huge mistakes (Bathsheba, murder .  .  . ) and who left testimony that he suffered great mental anguish, too. Not only was this epitome of what God is looking for inRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Forgiveness, Prayer and Devotions, Sin and Holiness

“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:18) Love is a physical feeling or emotional sentiment to much of the world, and an empty action or, worse, words about action to too many in the church. Feeling and sentiment alone do no one any good. Words and promises alone do no one any good, but likewise neither does loving actions and a smile on the face while bitterness and anger linger in the heart. One of the chief reasons we struggle to consistently love is because we’ve relegated love to mere behavior. If weRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Fear and Anxiety, Lament, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. Habakkuk 3:17-18 We discussed these verses previously in light of verse 18. This is a picture of total disaster in an agrarian society, no security and no livelihood, but it is also a picture of barrenness.  His stores are empty, he has a great lack. This is a cause of great suffering,Read More →