by Lucinda Secrest McDowell | Oct 1, 2020 | Spiritual Growth
Chemotherapy had not diminished her humor. Nor her wisdom. As she sat on the stage and regaled us with encouragement to write our stories with passion and purpose, I listened in the back of the auditorium utterly grateful for this human—cancer survivor, God’s servant,...
by Sarah Rennicke-Freymuth | Oct 1, 2020 | Spiritual Growth
God’s goodness. In the depths of our being, do we believe that he really has good in store for our lives? What about those times when life feels anything but? When situations seem to show otherwise, how can we glean the good? This has been my quest: discovering God’s...
by Christine Litavsky | Aug 1, 2020 | Spiritual Growth
One of the many beautiful things about our Bible is its persistent inclusion of women. From Eve on, we understand clearly that our God created us, used us, and continues to use us to tell his story. We matter to him—so much so that Jesus took special pains to...
by Elizabeth Turnage | Aug 1, 2020 | Spiritual Growth
Call me Mara, for the Almighty has made life very bitter for me. (Ruth 1:20, NLT) First, a famine sent her small family into exile in a foreign land. Then her husband died. Then her two sons married unbelieving women. Then her two sons died. Naomi knew something about...
by Heather Creekmore | Aug 1, 2020 | Spiritual Growth
To me it’s the meanest verse in the whole Bible: Genesis 29:17. “Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.” Some scholars have tried to write it off—to interpret Leah’s weak eyes as something different than a beauty deficiency. But to me...
by Ronne Rock | Aug 1, 2020 | Spiritual Growth
GET TO KNOW THE STORY: Mary, the mother of Jesus, was at a wedding feast in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited and were there. When the wine was all gone, Mary said to Jesus, “They don’t have any more wine.” Jesus replied,...
