Rethinking Christian Life

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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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More Good Stuff…

I told you I finally saw my name in print the other day. Yes, my first published article! Guess what? Now you can see it! Click on the resource topic to your left and in there you will find my new article. It is about my in-vitro fertilization journey. I hope it is helpful for…
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Right Thinking Wrong Thinking…Relationships

I see it in status updates on Facebook. “I won’t let you treat me like that.” I hear it on the news, “He only thought he could treat me like that!” Insert finger snap, head swivel, and the flashing lights of a police car as she is arrested for shooting her cheating boyfriend. Movies, books,…
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Unruly Emotions

My heart felt tight in my chest. According to my emotions, everything was wrong. Insidiously my emotions started to short circuit my brain. My thinking became muddled. My outlook became increasingly negative. Even things I was excited about seemed dull, lifeless, UGH! My emotions were in control and I didn’t like it. So I did…
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Armor

We are at war. We, in the US, have troops fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. All day long our soldiers wear armor. Bulletproof vests and helmets. They carry weapons to mount offensives. They are tough. I wonder what would happen if everyday we followers of Christ would remember we are at war. What if…
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Set on Fire by Hell

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” my small voice sang. I have wanted to believe that words are just words and they don’t have real power to hurt. But even as a child singing those words they often sounded hollow. Words can and do hurt. They drip with…
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The Day After Easter

Do you ever wonder what the day after Easter was like? The mountain top experience Jesus is alive, but do you wonder if the disciples doubt? Did Thomas’ doubts take seed in the others who saw Jesus? Did they begin to think maybe it was something we all ate? I wonder. I know I am…
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So Glad You Made It!

Hello everyone. Here it is my new blog that seems to be working just right. At least I think all the glitches are gone! I know only enough of this stuff to be dangerous. Yes dangerous I say. 😉 Anyway, consider joining me! Don’t miss a post by signing up for an e-mail or an…
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The C.A.L.L.

I have been memorizing the book of James. I am slowing down a bit, but I am more than half-way done. WOO HOO! This book is a challenging book. It is full of truths that begged to be lived out. One of those truths I memorized in the first chapter it says: “Religion that God…
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Pay Attention…

My blood pressure sky rockets as I say the same sentence for what feels like the millionth time. My words are unheeded. Water continues to fill the cup held by a small hand. The cup overflows. My floor is wet. He didn’t pay attention. As a rule we all need to pay attention or life…
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