With the grind of everyday life constantly staring at us, always asking for just a bit more, how can we even think of pausing and going on retreat? What does the Bible say about retreats? Let’s look to Jesus.
Read More
How do you plan a personal retreat? Mary Younger shares ten ideas for how to prepare for and plan a day away for a personal, spiritual retreat.
Read More
Where did we get the idea that some things – like books or movies or professions or fast food restaurants – are Christian and some are not? We even push that idea to believe that certain nations are Christian (or at least God-fearing) and others are not. Our classification of inanimate objects as good or evil, and even considering something secular because it doesn’t contain God’s name or have Scripture verses in it, is nothing new.
Read More
Judy couldn’t imagine finding women’s clothes that didn’t belong to her under their bed one more time. Her husband sometimes dressed up as a woman and went out late at night. How could she forgive him?
Lindy found a text message on her husband’s phone from a woman she didn’t know. She misses him? Wanting to throw his phone at him, she asked, “What are you doing with this woman and why does she miss you?”
Susan woke in the middle of the night to see a light on in her husband’s office. She wandered by the doorway and saw he was viewing pornography on his computer. Heartbroken, she asked him, “Why are you doing this? Why can’t you stop?”
These are a glimpse into stories I’ve heard from women betrayed by their husbands. How can they forgive what seems unforgivable?
Read More
Before I became a Christian, I was raised in a home full of prejudices of every kind against those who were of a different nationality, race, social status, and even church denominations!
Anyone who was different in any way from my family was to be judged as somehow unacceptable. As an adult, I continued to see this same warped way of viewing those who might be different in any way. Neighbors who looked down on other neighbors, family members refusing to accept other family members, nations hating other nations, etc.
When I became a Christian and invited Jesus Christ to come and dwell within me through the Holy Spirit, something truly unique and miraculous happened.
Read More
Kindness is powerful. The past decade has been a challenging one for me. However, I have experienced the goodness of God through the kindness of his people.
Read More
Ninety-five days till Christmas, the newscaster said. Inwardly I groaned. Unlike Hobby Lobby, which starts Christmas after the Fourth of July, it's hard for me to get motivated when Halloween (sorry, the Autumn Festival) has yet to arrive. Working in a large church has rearranged my priorities for holidays. Start early, or suffer the consequences.
Read More
Why do couples leave the ministry? Of the many rumors that swirl around a pastor’s resignation, we don’t often consider the hardship that ministry places on the pastor’s wife and on their marriage. Women married to pastors are often living in a fishbowl—facing unique challenges.
Read More
We might as well admit it; ministry requires time and hard work. Random items stack up under our desks, in cupboards, and drawers. Computer files seemingly grow while we're asleep. Emails go unanswered for far too long. How long has it been since someone cleaned the church kitchen?
Read More
Yesterday I unexpectedly found myself by a lone bench on an empty oceanfront. A boat was just off the shore, solitary but securely anchored in the sea. I ached with the unexpected beauty, the symbolic solitude of the boat. I felt like this boat. Alone, aching, but securely anchored. As I stood there, I thought about the last two months and how a crisis can set off a whole new cycle of grief and loss.
Read More