Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 191
October 2, 2015
October 1, 2015
what trumps all the headlines & all our fears
Trillia Newbell would say she is a simple woman with a big love for God and His Word. She has a desire to see women united in Jesus and finding the peace available to them through knowing the character of the Father through Scripture. Her father taught her to love others regardless of their skin color, which built the foundation for her desire to share about the beauty of diversity in the world—leading her to write a book on this topic. She’s also experienced various trials and knows the fight of faith and how so easily our fears can whisper lies to us. Fear won’t have to the last word as she shares in her most recent book. It’s a grace to welcome Trillia Newbell to the farm’s front porch today…
T he news stories continue to pour in and all of us—red and yellow, black and white—look on in disbelief.
Could a bi-racial Ivy League tennis star really be mistaken for a criminal and thrown to the ground?
A case of false identity, right?
Could it also be a case of WWB “walking while black”?
We don’t know. But we do know that it has our nation and many of our African American sisters and brothers, like me, fearful and worried about all of our futures — personally and collectively.
I remember when I first realized that so many of these stories were beginning to affect me.
I was walking out of a store and a policeman was walking in and I froze. I halted and smiled and then began walking briskly to my car. I was surprised by my response.
And I was ashamed that I stereotyped that officer. I’m thankful to God for our law-enforcement. There are honest men and women who are working hard to keep our cities safe and secure.
And, yet, there’s no denying that there’s a new fight in my heart and also, I know, in the hearts of many.
We—myself included—we are all, every single one of all of us, fighting against some kind of fear.
We are all fighting against being feared and misunderstood.
We are all fighting to learn to love again and many others are fighting to be known by their love.
We are all fighting and my prayer is that we’ll fight together and we’ll fight the right fights.
I pray the church would be filled with people from all nations fighting to love one another and proclaim the unity of Jesus to the world— together.
“Because we know God and because we fear God, we can trust God. There is only one God, and He is our Father.
He most clearly reveals Himself in His Word, so it is there that we must turn to learn more about Him and grow in fearing Him.
We see His words written on everything from bumper stickers to Hallmark cards, but we can’t miss that they are the words of life and that they are trustworthy.
In Taking God at His Word, Kevin DeYoung lays out why we can trust and believe God’s Word.
He says that God’s Word says what is true. God’s Word demands what is right.
But it is his third point that is most relevant to me. I think we can believe His Word and even believe that we need to obey it. But do we believe it provides what is good? He writes:
“According to Psalm 119, the word of God is the way of happiness (vv. 1–2), the way to avoid shame (v. 6), the way of safety (v. 9), and the way of good counsel (v. 24). The word gives us strength (v. 28) and hope (v. 43). It provides wisdom (vv. 98–100, 130) and shows us the way we should go (v. 105). . . . As the people of God, we believe the word of God can be trusted in every way to speak what is true, command what is right, and provide us with what is good.”
God’s Word is good and provides what is good for us.
God’s Word is sufficient for us to fight temptation and to know Him.
He has given us all we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). We gain wisdom from the Word, and, as DeYoung writes, “The word of the world is not like the word of God. One is new and now. The other is ancient and everlasting. . . . If we want—and if we need—a wisdom that is beyond us, that is outside of us, that will never fail us, we must look into the things that ‘God has revealed to us through the Spirit’ [1 Corinthians 2:10].”
Because of these things we can trust Him and take Him at His word.
So we can rest and remember these and many more promises:
Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind! (Psalm 31:19)
The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love. (Psalm 147:11)
He fulfills the desire of those who fear Him; He also hears their cry and saves them. (Psalm 145:19)
Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love. (Psalm 33:18)
Why all this talk about the Word of God?
Because at the root of our fear, at the root of all our sin, is unbelief.
In order to combat our unbelief, you and I must believe, and so we turn to God to ask Him to help our unbelief.
Depending on your Bible translation, there could be well over three hundred verses that contain the phrase “fear not.”
One of the most popular occurrences is found in Isaiah 41:10: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
All of Isaiah 41 points to God’s sovereign hand. And then in the middle of it, He reminds us that He is not only sovereign but also loving, good, and for us, and because of this we do not need to fear. God is with us.
So when our fear of man seems louder than our trust in Him, or our fear for the future overwhelms our thoughts, or our fear and comparison strip us of our joy, the Lord proclaims to us, “Fear not, I am with you.”
He reminds us that He is our God. He is a personal and intimate God.
He knew us before the foundation of the earth, and He knit us together in the womb of our mother.
When your fears tell you that you are alone, God whispers, “I am your God.” He will uphold you. He has adopted us as His children. He sent His Son to die for us. He loves us with an everlasting love. He has covenanted with us.
Your fears tell you that you have to be strong. God tells you, “I will strengthen you.”
Your fears will tell you that you will fall and fail.
Your fears will tell you that you have to muster up the strength to be all that you think the Lord desires you to be, and that you must do it on your own.
Your fears will tell you that you don’t measure up and never will.
God tells you, “I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Your fears will tell you to fear.
God tells you, “Be not dismayed.”
~ excerpt from Fear and Faith: Finding the Peace Your Heart Craves
Trillia Newbell is the author of Fear and Faith: Finding the Peace Your Heart Craves and United: Captured by God’s Vision for Diversity and she’s currently the Director of Community Outreach for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission for the Southern Baptist Convention.
In Fear and Faith, Trillia encourages you as she reflects on Scripture and her own story. She shows you Jesus, who was tempted like you in every way. She shows you the character of God and how it inspires faith. And she shows you real women who have walked the road of fear—or are still walking it—and how they have found security in the Lord to be their strength. Whatever your fear, you are not alone, nor are you without hope. You have the One who can replace your fear with faith.
Links for 2015-09-30 [del.icio.us]
"...the rarest personality type, defying the odds in everything..."
An open letter to my children; you’re not that great.
"...if you are never desolate how will you recognize how much you need a Savior?"
Why This Breast Cancer Patients Begs You to Stop and Think Before You Go Pink This October
a must read...@mafeinberg
September 30, 2015
when you’re desperately looking for grace in the midst of hard places
Just yesterday, I found myself so desperately missing the wisdom of Kara Tippetts that I circled round to one of her videos, choked up over the brave grace and profound truth that only Kara could share. I needed Kara words: “Suffering isn’t a mistake and isn’t the absence of God’s goodness — because He’s present in pain.”
And then, in His serendipitous grace, Kara’s friend, Jill unexpectedly showed up in my inbox with a note — there were more Kara words: words that her and Kara wrote together: Just Show Up: The Dance of Walking Through Suffering Together. Three years ago, Jill had met a new mother at her child’s school by the name of Kara Tippetts. Kara and her husband had moved to Colorado to plant a church, but just six months after arriving, Kara was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of thirty-six. She fought valiantly against the disease, her community rallying around her. She loudly proclaimed that God was still good in the midst of suffering, impacting so many through her award-winning bestseller, The Hardest Peace, and her blog. Kara and Jill dreamed of writing a book together that would take some of the mystery out of waking through suffering with one another. But while that dream was born, Kara’s cancer continued to spread. They wrote Just Show Up: The Dance of Walking Through Suffering Together while Kara was in hospice, being vulnerable about the heartbreak when God’s answers are not as we hoped they would be. Kara won her battle with cancer on March 22nd of this year, when she flew to meet her Jesus face-to-face. Kara was a soul sister — and a whole world of us hunger for more of Kara and the insights her story gave her — which she generously shared with the rest of us limpers, so we could write better stories. I miss her terribly — and it’s a wild grace to welcome Jill Buteyn to the farm’s front porch today…
Thirty-eight year old mamas with four kids don’t die.
That’s not how cancer works.
We have too many ways to treat it. Fix it. And we have a great God.
I know He’s listening.
He’s listening to all of the voices that rise up and pray, please heal. Please save. Please.
And yet, He doesn’t.
Or does He? Isn’t it being saved to live forever in heaven? To sing and dance among the heavenly realms?
Good Photo
Good Photo
Good Photo
Good Photo
Good PhotoA dear woman reads these words to me:
“To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father.
I will also give that one the morning star. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Revelations 2:26-29
“The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Revelations 3:5-6
Kara conquered, she reminds me. Kara was victorious.
And so I wonder over the next days… is Kara ruling over something?
She would like that.
The thought makes me smile and imagine all of the things I don’t understand.
Kara would be a wise and gentle ruler. Full of grace yet still disciplining. Yes, I think. Maybe she is in charge of someone or something up there.
Thirty-eight year old mamas of four do die.
I don’t know what to do with this information. It’s too close. Too painful. And so I fluctuate between tears and numb. I dance between not understanding and asking for help with my lack of understanding.
We do not have all of the answers and cures. He is still in charge of our moments, our lives. We reach for control and He takes it back again and again.
Numb is easier, I remind myself. Don’t think.
You must grieve, they tell me. The wise women in my life. Have you taken time? Have you given yourself time to grieve?
No, I think. It’s too painful.
If I can stay busy enough. Write enough. Do anything enough, it won’t hurt.
But it still hurts. It’s underneath, that pain. But it is still there, even when I don’t recognize it.
I’m thirty-seven years old. I am too young to have walked with a friend from cancer diagnosis to the gates of heaven.
I am too young to have visited the hospice wing of the hospital.
To have whispered love to a dying friend.
To sit by her while she fought and faded.
To have prayed and prayed and prayed for answers that didn’t go as we asked.
She was too young to go.
But then, I wonder, is there a right age to die? To fly away to the arms of Jesus?
There is only the age He has handcrafted for us. The moments of life He gifts us.
I whisper to Him that I don’t understand, but that I still trust that He loves us. That I believe He loved Kara more than I can even begin to comprehend.
I ask Him to help me believe.
She would dance, I remind myself. She would find the moments to be thankful for. The babies to kiss. The friends to love.
Every day she would look for the grace and she would find it.
She reminds us that:
She would remind us of that: Grace always shows up.
Always. Even in dying. Even in grief.
And I see it.
I see grace in the women she left behind. In the relationships that have bloomed and grown and blessed beyond my imagination.
I see grace in laughter and hugs. When I run a hand over my child’s hair and thank God, really thank Him, for that moment.
I see it when I stop and pray before attempting to do something on my own.
I see it in a faith revived.
I see the grace in her words still reaching so many, even after she’s flown away.
I see the grace.
Jill Lynn Buteyn is a co-author of Just Show Up: The Dance of Walking Through Suffering Together with Kara Tippetts.
In Just Show Up, Kara and Jill Lynn write about what friendship looks like in the midst of changing life seasons, loads of laundry, and even cancer. Whether you are eager to be present to someone going through a difficult time or simply want inspiration for pursuing friends in a new way, this eloquent and practical book explores the gift of silence, the art of receiving, and what it means to just show up.
September 28, 2015
why you are deeply needed
when it hits hard, right about this time of year… this always grabs me:
The plan was supposed to be that we would take him west.
That he’d turn 18 and go west.
That we’d pack up his room, his dog-earred G.A. Henty books, that thinning and scratchy red wool blanket of my grandmother that’s laid at the foot of his bed, the oiled painting that he was given from those mothers up in the mountains of Haiti, and his fading jeans and plaid shirt.
And his dad and I would drive him 4,000 arrow-straight miles west to the ocean and drop him off at a university none of us had ever laid eyes on in our life.
He’d be our first arrow shot. My heart would be pierced.
He made his down payment.
And I laid down my quaking heart and this ridiculous hope that he’d stay close. The kid was crazy pumped. Yeah, so my mama-heart was drained. You still gotta smile brave.
Nobody knows it but – Parents wear Purple Hearts: the brave who are wounded and die a bit more everyday – and only get braver.
But then it was his younger brother who went east.
Right to the opposite side of the country, right out to the other coast. He goes with my brother, drives through Quebec through the night, past the farms lined up along the St. Lawrence River, following the aging river where Cartier and Champlain sailed, follow it right out to the ageless ocean and it’s endless lapping waves. They serve for a week at a Bible camp for native kids.
Joshua mops floors and gets dishpan hands and does kitchen duty and crawls into his bunk after midnight. My brother emails me in the middle of the night to tell me how happy he is to be there with our boy. At the end of the week, we pack up the sagging van with the 7 of us and head east to go bring him home.
Our only road trip ever.
And the last road trip before the first boy leaves.
Apparently —
Our youngest boy breathes too breathy and close for our daughter’s liking when packed like sardines into one van heading east.
This may or may not have led to blood curdling screaming fits replete with tears and blankets thrown over heads.
There were flat out World Wars over euchre, pillows and, seriously — the last of the grapes. I may or may not have threatened missile strikes and food sanctions and late night diplomatic negotiations for global peace – or at least van peace.
The Farmer smiles thinly and just kept his eyes on the road and us heading east.
Somewhere in the woods of New Brunswick, when they all blessedly fall asleep but the last stubborn kid, she calls out to her Dad: “You just keep driving and I’ll read to you, ‘kay?”
He wearily nods, leans forward over the wheel, battling sleep-deprivation and father-with-little-peace-deprivation.
And there in her small voice it comes — Psalm 102. She’s reading the Bible to him.
Apparently, right in our messes are where the miracles happen.
“A Prayer for the Afflicted….” She begins slow.
The Farmer grins: “Appropriate.”
“The Lord looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth…”
And we’re all a bit crazy and we’re all a bit afflicted and we have a God who sees every bit of it and takes all of us.
We have a God who sees hearts like we see faces, a God who hears ache like we hear voices, and we have a God who touches wounds like we touch skin.
God sees it all — and He will see to all of it. No one’s crazy can change God’s crazy love.
And after we get Josh, and there’s a tight 8 of us shoehorned into the van, we drive by this mountain stretched up like this sheer dare over the ocean and we make a U-turn and because we have these unrelenting boys who are determined to climb –and one girl who needs to use every single roadside washroom facility spotted– and really, you can make a u-turn anywhere.
The girls go looking for the vented outhouse.
I sit in the grass and watch the two oldest boys begin their ascent. The Farmer distracts the two youngest boys from their own climbs with one fierce and sweaty game of tag.
I keep watch at the base — as if that’s really going to help if something goes wrong. Stones roll. There’s hardly a breeze.
The boys keep hauling higher.
“Hey Josh?” Caleb calls over his shoulder. “What’s that rattling sound?”
Both boys stop, cling to some stone.
“Crickets? I don’t know — Tree frogs?”
“You sure?”
“Sure, I’m sure: crickets or tree frogs or something else.” Joshua shakes something out of his shoe. “Definitely not a rattler. Come on already, Cale…” Joshua’s already pulling higher.
I’m listening to the rattle in the sun. Cale’s back to reaching and stretching and climbing. How many times have I mistaken more than a few metaphorical crickets in my life for bona fide rattlers?
How many times did I think these boys would stay little and close and safe?
How many times have I thought safe mattered when Jesus died to save us not to make us safe. No one ever got saved unless someone else was unsafe.
“You going higher?” Josh is calling to Caleb and their mother’s watching from the bottom – Purple Heart, Parents live purple-hearted.
“Yeah — higher!” Cale’s man voice echoes down the mountain.
“Hey, Josh?” One brother’s calling over to the other.
“Can Mom see us doing this?”
And I hear that. The old mother at the bottom of the mountain, she hears her boys men hollering that and I nod and smile slow.
Yes, boys – right to my end, I will be your witness.
God as my witness, I will be your witness, and you can climb and you can take risks and you can go east and you can go west and distance never stopped love from being a witness.
Go ahead, sign me up to witness the launchings and the beginnings, witness the dares you take, the challenges you rise to, the heartbreak you don’t want anyone else to see and the crazy you wish you could hide. The Lord looked down, from heaven He viewed the earth in all it’s crazy and God sees it all – and He sees to it all – and He doesn’t turn away. God is your witness: You are seen and known.
Who will be God’s witness? So He is seen and known?
Be brave. In all your crazy, be brave, boys. And I’ll be there, in heart or in body, to witness the first dates and the failed dreams and it’s okay to cry, boys, your tears are safe with me.
Because the truth is: Life’s a trial and everyone needs a witness — someone on your front row, someone on your sidelines, someone to clap you across the finish line when everyone else has gone home.
Everyone needs a witness – someone to testify you were really here and you really tried, someone to witness your wounds and believe in your worth, someone to say even your crazy can’t stop you from being crazy loved.
Everyone needs a witness who will stand and not hold you back because if we all only lived safe, no one would ever get saved.
Everyone needs a witness — and I’ll be yours.
You don’t become a parent by bearing a child. You become a parent by bearing witness to his life.
The boys wave.
And I swallow hard and memorize them.
And I wave back —
the witness willing to always bear the weight of all their glory.
Related: 4 Steps to Take When You are Not Ready for Change
September 26, 2015
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [09.26.15]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories this week 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything — and that there’s love everywhere & for ((you))! Serving up only the Good Stuff for you right here:
Henrik Vikse
Henrik Vikse
Henrik Vikse
sometimes? you just need to grab the dog & go for a long walk like this
gunar
okay, really — some of the best smiles on the web this week?
yeah, now that’s a duo
snails…. and cats? oh, yeah.
Tõnu Tunnel
Tõnu Tunnel
glory
so when the flower girl explains wedding etiquette to her father
Takashi Yasui
Takashi Yasui
Takashi Yasui
your free ticket to unexpected glory
now this is really good news: What God Thinks About You
so…did you know that?
We couldn’t stop watching…
This week’s Sticky Note for Your Soul:
FREE daily printables to cheer you on!
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1 man. 1 game. 5 goals… in just 9 minutes?!?!
“In 26 years of my law enforcement career, nothing like that … has ever happened to me”
what if we did this more often?
so about beautiful Emma…
Tiffany Johnson
c’mon. doesn’t the picture say it all? What’s not to love about this?
yes, this really happened this week – an emergency landing — and no one was injured
13 inspiring stories of refugees welcomed around the world
Gather Your Community & Go Say Yes at WeWelcomeRefugees.com
For those in the US or Canada wanting to gather items together to tangibly show love to in the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II, connect with one of these local refugee resettlement offices – here is a list of 26 World Relief offices located in the US.
They are in need supplies and items for newly arrived refugees into the US who are setting up new lives. And especially as winter starts, they will be in need of new coats, shoes, and so much more. If Each One — Does One Thing.
the terrified kid’s about to have open heart surgery — when the doctor does this
some pretty wise words… from a 6 yr old
Lisa-Jo Baker
this is really beautiful: A Prayer for all the Weary Mothers
he’s using fields as his canvas
seeing the flowers — through the weeds #LifesAlwaysAMatterOfPerspective
okay, zero shame in saying this choked me up:
he sings one unforgettable love song to his wife in her last days…
just lead us all to the Cross…
[ print’s free for you here ]Dear Little Lies that are keeping us up late:
Yes, you Lies that are telling us it’s not going to turn out okay,
that God won’t be enough, that this mountain ahead of us is too high, that we’re going to fail, mess up, blow it, lies that give us no rest — well, guess what, Little Lies?The Truth is that God’s got us, that He’s bigger than any mountain, He can make a road through any ocean,
He’s in us & with us & for us & He is enough, so we will always have & be enough — and His absolute perfect love for us kicks all you Little Lies & all you Lying Fears right to the curb.
So consider yourself busted, Little Lies & Lying Fears:
When His Love’s got a hold of you?
There isn’t a lie in the universe that can pull you apart.
Love has a hold of us — so you fear & the lies really don’t.Love,
The Free & Absolutely Safe Us. [excerpted from our daily devotions in our Facebook community … come join us?]
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
September 25, 2015
Links for 2015-09-24 [del.icio.us]
@ScottSauls.... what Pastor Sauls says here is worth prayerfully, humbly, deeply considering...
September 24, 2015
how to find hope on the other side of your shame
Two decades ago, shame held its hand out to Aubrey Sampson after she was sexually assaulted on the school bus as a young teenager. As it did with Eve’s first bite of apple, something twisted awakened in her after that bus ride, and she began to take up residence in an identity of shame. Over the next decade, and even into marriage, Aubrey lived with the residual impact of her shame. But God never left her side. She has experienced His redemptive and healing hand, and has become a woman set free. She still has moments, like all of us, where she may have shame, but she knows, in Jesus, shame no longer has her. It’s a grace to welcome Aubrey to the farm’s front porch…
A high school boyfriend once asked if I’d ever read the book of Hosea.
I had. The words he said next still wreck me.
“You remind me of Gomer.”
(I sure knew how to pick ’em.)
If you’re familiar with the story, you know that God instructed the prophet Hosea to marry an adulterous woman named Gomer. Although Gomer had many lovers, God instructed Hosea to stay faithful to her, “though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites” (Hos. 3:1).
Hosea and Gomer had three children together.
Their first son was named Jezreel, after the site of a massacre (2 Kings 10).
Their second child, a daughter, was Lo Ruhamah, meaning “not loved.”
Their third son was called Lo Ammi, “not my people.”
Theirs is definitely not the kind of story you’d want illustrated in your children’s Bibles. And Gomer is definitely not the woman you want your boyfriend to think of when he looks at you.
I don’t know your story, but I can imagine you have known, at some point in your life, what it is to feel unworthy or disqualified.
You’ve probably shed secret tears behind locked doors.
You may have allowed yourself to disappear a little bit over time.
You may have painful memories or emotions from your past.
There is a little girl in each of us who lingers.
She was the daughter who played with princess paper dolls and dreamed of the day she would don her own tiara and white flowing bridal gown. And although she never set out to, that little girl grew up to become that paper doll—flat and crumpled, a plaything with a need for repair and new clothing.
She, who was once full of life and wonder, became empty and enveloped in the shadows of her shame.
Was I Gomer? Was I a daughter of Gomer?
You remind me of Gomer. Those hard words lingered in my heart for years. But God never abandoned Israel—or Gomer:
“She decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the Lord.
“Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor [trouble] a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.”
“In that day,” declares the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master’ … I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.” (Hosea 2:13–16, 19–20)
This beautiful passage of scripture teaches that even if you have been hiding for years, God never abandons His daughters to rot in their shame.
He romances you.
He draws you back to Himself.
He speaks tenderly to you.
Where you had trouble, you will once again have hope. That which has been stolen will be replaced.
Doors that have been locked will be thrown wide open.
What shame has broken, He will restore.
No matter how shame has wasted and wounded you, your Husband-King will pick up your lifeless body and breathe in something new. He will care for your injuries and tend to your broken heart, to the little girl inside.
He will nourish you with living water, with the bread and wine of His body.
He will give you rest and then lift you to your feet again.
You will rise, clothed in shame no more.
Yours is a bridal gown of righteousness, justice, compassion, and restorative love.
God, who renews all things, eventually gave Gomer and Hosea’s children new names.
Their sons, once known for punishment and repudiation, He renamed “My People.”
Their only daughter, known as unloved, He gave the new name “My Loved One.” Born into shame, loneliness, and misery, she was reborn as a woman deeply known and loved by her God.
And so it is with us.
You may have been Gomer.
You may have been that paper doll, used, marred, and tossed aside.
You may have been a shadow of yourself.
But in the name of Jesus, your Overcomer, your Shame Remover, you have been given a new name.
Jesus says,
You are Mine.
You are Loved.
You are New.
You are Radiant.
You may have been naked and ashamed, but in Jesus, you are clothed in courage, confidence, and dignity.
You never again have to stoop in shame, because He is the lifter of your head.
You will never remind Him of Gomer.
Aubrey Sampson is a member of the Redbud Writers Guild and is passionate about empowering women to experience freedom from shame. Her first book is Overcomer: Breaking Down the Walls of Shame and Rebuilding Your Soul. Aubrey is a pastor’s wife, a church planter, a ministry event speaker, and a stay-at-home-mom to three sons. (which is to say she spends most days in her pajamas drinking too much coffee).
Written with a strong biblical theology, humorous authenticity, as well as true-life stories shared by women of all ages, in Overcomer, Aubrey equips readers with tools for an ongoing spiritual discipline of shamelessness. For any woman whose self-worth has been stolen, the wise teachings in Overcomer will give you the courage, in Jesus, to reclaim it.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
Links for 2015-09-23 [del.icio.us]
a free guide -- offered to us from Jerry B. Jenkins and Dr. Dennis E. Hensley
September 23, 2015
Links for 2015-09-22 [del.icio.us]
What if true happiness is not found? What if it finds you? #TheJoyProject: a new book from a friend. And it’s free.
The power of prayer
This is a testimony of a woman who was tragically killed along with her husband & 2 young children in a car accident this past weekend. Her powerful story from 8 years ago is worth telling again...
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