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returning to the Shepherd’s side
We often think that our choice to wander away from our Good Shepherd will manifest as an outwardly obvious decision. Sometimes it is outright defiance. Other times, though, our stubborn rebelliousness may not be apparent to us. I’ve learned that, more often than not, my own wandering begins as a slow meandering after what is good. Before I realize it, I am focusing too much on the good and less on the source of good: God Himself. I slowly, unsuspectingly, put distance between myself and Him. The Lord has given us a broad land and much freedom to roam, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still pitfalls nestled among the…
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Shattering Strongholds (part 2)
Finding Freedom, part 4 Read part 1 here: Releasing Secrets Read part 2 here: Reclaiming Hearts Read part 3 here: Shattering Strongholds In the first part of this message, we learned about the first of three types of open doors that allow the enemy access into our hearts: personal sin. We discovered how making choices to cultivate life rather than death weakens the enemy’s hold on us. We also looked at how the pattern of repentance and belief can begin to demolish enemy strongholds in our hearts. Now we are going to wade into even deeper waters. If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to pray our Lord’s protection…
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Shattering Strongholds
Finding Freedom, part 3 Read part 1 here: Releasing Secrets Read part 2 here: Reclaiming Hearts Every time I come back to telling this story, I am freshly reminded that I have started somewhere in the middle. I begin to write something and then hesitate, remembering foundations I haven’t laid, connecting tissue that doesn’t connect. For a moment, I doubt myself and my message. Perhaps I should start over … But then I realize this is just part of the messy wildness of it all. Honestly, there aren’t “Five easy steps to finding freedom” or any “Take your life back in an hour and a half” guarantees. There are patterns and…
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Never Again
Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. About 75 years ago, some 6 million Jews and others whose lives were declared to have no value were exterminated by Nazi Germany. In the decades since the tragedy now known as the Holocaust, “Never again!” has been the rallying cry. Today, less than 100,000 voices remain to testify to their personal experience of surviving these atrocities. Without effort and intentionality, our world stands in danger of allowing their memories to perish with them. Some years back, my pastors sat across their dinner table from an Israeli Messianic Jew, a friend of theirs, and discussed the legacy of the Holocaust. He asked them if…
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She’ll Never Be
She’ll never be an artist, cradling a brush in once-chubby fingers grown slender and strong as she’s honed her craft. She’ll never be a writer, weaving worlds with her words, capturing the everyday and transforming it into splashes of glory upon the page. She’ll never be a doctor, wielding the power of life and death in her hands, carrying healing and hope into each new birthing room and bedside vigil. She’ll never be a gardener, harvesting her yield and tilling soil to begin anew, crumbling clods of earth between callused yet tender fingers. She’ll never be a mama, caressing sleep-flushed cheeks, kissing away bruises and heartaches, snuggling her babies close…
