I’ve always felt a little intimidated by the book of Revelation. People would say things about how it says the end times would include ABC and you can tell the end is getting closer because of XYZ. But whenever I tried to read it I ended up feeling more lost and confused. Yet all that recently changed. I learned that it’s really a book of hope. Hope that, despite everything appearing to keep getting worse and worse, and life being hard for us and our families, we can rest assured that God has a plan for it all. Rewinding
Category: Bible
These posts are related to things I’m learning from the Bible. This includes verses that resonate with me, studies I’m going through, takeaways from sermons, and more.
When I’m afraid, I freeze. This isn’t just fear about my safety, either. I stand still and wait, unsure how to proceed, when I’m worried I might say or do the wrong thing, too. I think this is a fairly common response, which is reassuring–but not very helpful. In his book Chasing David , I really appreciated how Rene Schlaepfer used David’s response to Goliath as an example for how we should approach fear. As a bonus, it’s a related mnemonic device: FEAR . F: Find out the Facts In 1 Samuel 17 , David sees Goliath challenge the Israelites
Flashback to Early Marriage Twelve years ago I experienced God’s sense of humor coming out through his perfect timing. It was the middle of the 2008 recession. My husband (Matt) and I had just gotten married, moved out of state, and were living in a one-bedroom apartment on one part-time income. Money was very tight, so we pretty much lived on rice and frozen chicken breasts. One day in particular I was complaining about it, wishing we could just go out to eat and enjoy a nice restaurant meal, and Matt said, “You know, you sound like the Israelites grumbling
This might seem odd for you to hear from me, especially since I’m known for my annoyingly optimistic nature sometimes. But over the years I’ve heard our culture say over and over again: Do what makes you happy. Don’t worry, be happy. If it doesn’t make you happy, it’s not worth it. You deserve to be happy. God Doesn’t Want You to Be Happy There was a time of my life where I bought into this cultural message. I thought God wanted me to be happy. But the more I’ve learned, the more I’ve realized happiness shouldn’t be my goal
It always amazes and surprises me how God reveals what he wants me to hear through various voices. I shouldn’t be suprised since He’s done it over and over again, but it does. Insight From Hebrews My family recently got home from Mount Hermon , a week-long Christian family camp, where I enjoyed hearing Richard Dahlstrom speak about sustainable faith by looking at a few different sections of Hebrews. The Culture Richard explained that Hebrews was written to Christians experiencing: Displacement and suffering. Competing religious narratives. The subtle seduction of stagnation. Not unlike what we’re facing in our culture today.
How often do you feel like you don’t measure up? For me, it happens pretty regularly. I feel like I’m not a great mom when I snap at my kids. Or when my focus shifts from trying to keep up on the housework to something else, and I look around and feel surrounded by mess. Or when what I intended to say to my husband came out wrong and led to division rather than connection. And that doesn’t even get into what the world tells me about what sort of woman I should be. It’s so, so easy to get
Like many women, I have struggled with Proverbs 31. I first became familiar with it from DC Talk’s That Kinda Girl : Well I’m lookin’ for a girl who virtuous Cause God laid it on my heart to search for this So I open up the Word to the book of Proverbs The 31st chapter tells me all about her Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain A woman who fears the Lord, she ain’t playin’ Hear what I’m sayin’, cause I’m sayin’ it clearly She’s the kinda girl I gots to have near me Fear the Lord. Don’t focus
As I shared in my previous post about David , my mom and I have been reading Chasing David by Rene Schlaepfer and seeing King David in a whole new light. I definitely recommend you give it a read! Here are a few things that stood out to my mom and me as we continued in Chapter 1. Family Dynamics When Samuel showed up in Bethlehem to anoint David, I’d always imagined he went straight to Jesse’s house and started looking at his sons that happened to be there. But if you actually read 1 Samuel 16:4-13 , the Bible
Last year my mom and I started a virtual Bible study together. Since we’re both busy and don’t always have overlapping time to actually meet, we decided we’d both read the same passage and then email each other our notes. Although it isn’t the same as an in-person Bible study, it was interesting to see what each of us took from the various passages and the perspectives we shared with each other! The Sermon on the Mount One of the passages we looked at was Matthew 5:1-26 , the Sermon on the Mount. As I read through this, I realized
I’m not a farmer. I’m not a gardener. I tried being a plant mom, but after my plants hobbled along for a couple of years, I decided to focus on other things. Despite my thumb being far from green, there are important lessons all of us can learn from plants. Sowing good seeds Twin Lakes Church shared a devotional for mothers this past May, and I really liked what one of them wrote based on Galatians 6:7b : “You will always harvest what you plant.” As it began to dawn on me that I would never have children of my