Rethinking Christian Life

Defining Success in God’s Upside-Down Kingdom

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21 ESV My husband…

Self Talk: How to Extend Grace to Yourself

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1 ESV Stupid, Angela, that was just plain stupid. You know better than that. Why can’t you get it right? I accidentally left a block of cheese out all night and it was hard and nasty the next morning. I had…

What to Do When God Can, But Isn’t

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us… Ephesians 3:20 ESV I prayed for a miracle. One that would shock the medical professionals and offer me an opportunity to share the gospel with a few folks. That the baby I…

Giving Grace through Words

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Ephesians 4:29 ESV My throat stung as my ears rang from the words that just flew out of my mouth. Then my cheeks flamed hot…

Steadfast Minds: How to Find Peace in Chaos

You [the LORD] keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3 ESV A mind stayed on the LORD is what it takes to trust and live in peace. But often I let my heart boss around my mind. It tells me that I feel left-out,…

Delight: The Mark of a Godly Life

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Genesis 3:6 ESV…

Searching for Light in Darkness

Growing up I was afraid of the dark. I forced my parents to leave the hall light on outside my bedroom so I could settle down and sleep. And if I ever woke up in the middle of the night my eyes would long for light. We lived on the corner of a busy street and…

Fighting Fear

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? Psalm 56:3-4 ESV It’s like a black hole that crawls inside my soul. This illogical fear short circuits my brain as my heartbeat runs wild. The…

How to be Brave in Adversity

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12 ESV Foolish. Many folks look at those who believe in God and think…

How to be Brave in Uncertain Times

I held a pen in my right-hand as I read the small gray card. It stated, “Any time, Any where, Any way, I will follow God.” At the bottom was a single line awaiting my signature to seal a contract to follow God where ever He would lead. It was a physical reminder of what it meant…

Obedience, Running, and Calling

“So don’t throw away your confidence, which has great reward. For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised…But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and are saved.” Hebrews 10:35-36 and 39 CSB I’ve been silent for…

A Season of Silence: Experiencing God’s Peace

“Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much.” -William Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing Words have been hard for me lately. Silence is easier. I wasn’t so full of joy I could not share like Claudio in the above quote. The big emotions – all of…

The Hope that Does Not Disappoint

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces…

Sovereignty: Three Ways to Trust God When Failure Looms

Last week I watched Clemson trounce Alabama in the NCAA’s Football National Championship game. Clemson was up 31-16 at halftime and never looked back. After a botched fake field goal at the beginning of the third quarter Alabama’s loss seemed imminent. Failure, at least in that game, was coming. Still Alabama did not walk off…

The New, the Not Yet, and the Gone: How to Live Fully When Now is a Struggle

“The struggle is real,” is our snide mantra over laughable “struggles” like not having coffee in the morning. But real struggles do exist. Depression turns just getting out of bed into a war. The struggle for parents to love, guide, discipline, and direct children who want their own way. The battle to overcome addiction. Physical…

Newly Broken: How to Live Fulfilled

2018. A year of breaking. God broke my comfortable world. He called me to teach high school seniors (a leadership class), enroll my kids in the school where I work, and step back into nursing by becoming a school nurse. Nothing felt comfortable. Nothing normal. In the midst of all the change my brokenness became…

Hope and Character: How to Find Lasting Hope

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope… Romans 5:3-4 ESV Character produces hope… I always thought imagination produced hope. Imagination that figures out a way through a difficult situation. Or an imagination that dreams big dreams. But God tells us character…

The Day After: How Hope Changes Everything

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake…

Depression: How to Explain It to Others

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18 ESV Looking back I can see it plainly. I was depressed and desperately clinging to my faith. No one from the outside could see it. They knew I injured my foot. They knew my house had to have all the…

New Beginnings: Grace, Growth, and Gratitude

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19 ESV God is in the business of doing new things in our lives. Why? For our good and His glory. So that this world…

Rethinking Christian Life

Rethinking Challenges, Rethinking Christian Life, Rethinking Faith

Rethinking Christian Life, Rethinking Hard Times

Rethinking Christian Life, Rethinking Gratitude

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