OLD TESTAMENT RESOURCE: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi by Kathleen Nielson
Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi by Kathleen Nielson LENGTH: [...]
Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi by Kathleen Nielson LENGTH: [...]
Blessed by Nancy Guthrie LENGTH: 12 weeks Description: [...]
Join host Karen Hodge and gospel friend Melanie [...]
Women's Ministry Training Thinking Biblically and Living Covenantally [...]
Join host Karen Hodge and gospel friend Marcie [...]
SARAH JEFFERSON | GUEST “ … that they may be one even as we are one …” (John 17:22) Beginning in November of 2019 and in the 18 months that followed, a tsunami of hard, unexpected events crashed into our lives. My husband and I lost a very close friend as well as both of our mothers. As I sifted through the ashes of our lives, my father reached out to reconcile after ten years of our relationship being broken and estranged. Overwhelmed by it all, I wanted to blow the whistle in the game of life and scream, “Time out on the field! Unsportsman like conduct, Lord!” Wading through so much grief while trying to wrap my mind around the work of reconciliation felt like a hard “no.” But I never want to linger in resistance to God’s word and will. When suffering guts your life so deeply, to whom will you go? How will you respond when waves of hard threaten to steal your very breath? When obedience in the hard circumstances of life beckon, what will you do?
RACHEL CRADDOCK|CONTRIBUTOR If I am being completely honest, laundry is my least favorite household chore. Like Mary Poppins, I can find an element of fun in most jobs that must be done around the house. But when it comes to laundry, I long for a fairy godmother’s power to simply swoosh away the piles of dirty clothes. Being a mom to four means my laundry basket is always full and sock-matching seems never-ending. We have forty-two pairs of socks in a week’s worth of laundry; the odds of finding all eighty-four socks in the same week are slim. In the new heavens and the new earth, when Christ returns to redeem and restore all things, I have a holy anticipation that socks will no longer go missing. I am convinced sock causalities must have something to do with the Fall. In my flesh, laundry is a begrudging chore. In my flesh, I can’t see laundry rightly as important kingdom work. When I focus my eyes on the earthly things I can see—the piles, the baskets, and oh-so-many socks—I easily become overwhelmed.
Join host Karen Hodge and gospel friend Teri [...]
HEATHER MOLENDYK|CONTRIBUTOR A modified journal entry from not so many years ago… Today’s church service was such a blessing! Getting to witness my four children fight each other using subtle gladiator-style battle strategies to be the ones to sit right next to me in the church pew totally validated my worth as a human being. It was an enriching experience to helpfully point out each word in scripture to my younger children only to realize at the end that they had been studying a small ant crawling on the floor the entire time. It was so joyful to sing those old hymns as a family while my small ones bounced mosh-pit style, accidentally knocking my hymn book to the floor. I took such pride in the generosity of my offspring as I pried open his little fingers from the dollar bill that belonged in the offering plate instead of his snug, little pocket. But then, like the eye of a hurricane, I was able to buy myself a limited amount of uninterrupted time when I passed out a small suck-on candy to each child. The winds hadn’t stopped blowing quite yet. I knew full well that when the eye finished its journey overhead, the storm would continue with the winds blowing in the opposite direction. Nevertheless, while their little legs swung back and forth, their little fingers twisted empty candy wrappers, and their little mouths were momentarily occupied, I was able to take that deep breath I so desperately needed. I opened my Bible to the sermon text.
In View of God's Mercies: The Gift of the [...]