When you submit your life to Christ, your spirit comes to life. You are born anew, and your spirit is connected to God’s Spirit. From that moment on, there is a war going on within you. Paul calls it a battle between your flesh and your spirit. By flesh, he’s not talking about your skin.…
Dance Stand Run: Let’s Go Back
It’s okay if we’ve had some misconceptions about grace, holiness, and mission. But it’s time for us to go back to the beginning of our faith and sort them out. ✦ Suggested Reading in Dance, Stand, Run: Intro, Chapter 1 (To be read by facilitator) Intro Ladies, friends, sisters: are you ready? This week, we’re…
Get in the Trench with a Friend
I so look forward to going with my friends and doing our girls lunch together time. You know the ones I’m talking about; those quiet epicurean type restaurants with cloth napkins, table cloths, pretty, dainty little light fixtures, those places that serve more than pizza and chicken strips. Let’s face it, most days I’m in…
An Empty Stomach
I’m more and more convinced that the answer to every prayer is more of the Holy Spirit. Need more power? Then you need more of the Holy Spirit. Need more wisdom? Then you need more of the Holy Spirit. Need more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control? Then you need more…
Why Are You Even Here?
Group Time Leader read Kat’s message to group: It’s no accident that your attention is here for the moment. Cast aside those nagging fears that you won’t give this study the time it deserves, and you should just quit while you’re ahead. Reject the notion that this can wait. Because now is always the right…
Palau: Proclaiming the Gospel
There is a harvest waiting around the world for those willing to obey and gather it. I have seen it in every country, on every continent. I’ll never forget being in Hong Kong in 1997 (the second time we went there), as the people of that beautiful island pre- pared for an uncertain future under…
Recognizing the Holy Spirit
Simeon took [the baby Jesus] in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as You have promised, You may now dismiss Your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your…
Verse Mapping Luke: She Believed
Welcome to the first session of Verse Mapping: Luke by Kristy Cambron. If you want to unpack the context of the Scriptures you’re reading but do it in a super-simple way— looking at the Hebrew/Greek translations, finding connections in the Word, & learning as much as you can from your time with the Holy Spirit— then…
It’s Time to Declare War
To be prepared for war is the most effectual means of preserving peace. — George Washington Welcome My guess is that you are facing a situation right now for which you don’t have the answers. Something that is making you feel terrified, trapped, or lonely. You feel as if you are a victim of your…
God Is Talking. Are We Listening?
Prayer involves an odd paradox in our day. Almost everyone talks to God. Newsweek magazine noted that in a recent survey more the guided life Americans said they pray in a given week than work, exercise, or have sexual relations. Of the 13 percent of Americans who claim to be atheist or agnostic, one in…