This question keeps coming up as my husband and I wrestle with how churches bring people to Jesus. The purpose seems straightforward: reach the lost and make disciples. But does how we do that matter? How much should a church resemble the culture around it to meet people where they are? This isn’t a question about one particular church. I see an approach across many churches that emphasizes making the main gathering accessible and appealing to unbelievers, with other settings

Six and a half years ago, when my life as I knew it came crashing down around my feet and the exhaustion of keeping up pretenses finally knocked me over, I found a level of humility that finally let me begin to surrender all to the Lord. Fast forward to now and I seem to be getting smacked in the face daily for all that I have apparently not surrendered. “…the condition of God’s blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands. If our hearts are willing for that, there is

There is this song that the refrain says “I love you Jesus” over and over. I found myself in church one Sunday morning feeling incredibly awkward. I was struggling to sing along and that caught me off guard – of course I love Jesus. So why was it so hard to say that? This bothered me for a while, but I didn’t really know where to go with it. It forced me stop and consider why I would have trouble saying that to God…and then reevaluate how I handle love with those around me.

There was nothing good about that day. Innocent blood was spilled and the enemies got their way. Evil walked free, justice was missing. No – not missing... Denied. Shackled. Held captive. There was nothing good about that day. There was nothingness the next, just a tomb and a stone. Promises were forgotten and everyone went home. There was no more shouting, in joy or in grief – Quiet. Lonely. Defeated. There was nothing good about that day. But Jesus always knew Sunda

I would love to think that I have passed the point of needing a good humbling. Chalk it up to my human nature, but it doesn’t. God will always develop your character to be match the assignment. I read that and it was as if the God himself was sitting behind me and asked, “what is the current state of your character?”

I’m BAAAACK! Listen, the Lord has been doing some work in me. I let the circumstances of my life get in the way of what He had planned for me – and as reasonable as it sounds to say “I had a baby” as an excuse, it really isn’t one. And it isn’t a good one because the truth is - I didn’t even try. So, let’s all acknowledge that potholes be potholing, and let me start sharing what God is doing. A couple of weeks ago I pulled down the three published posts for The Battle Cry Ser

Is the Bible true? Is it fact or fiction? I’ll be completely honest about my shortcomings in this arena. Once I got comfortable with Jesus, who he was, what he did, and what that means for me (basically, the New Testament)…I just took the rest of the Bible (Old Testament) at face value. I understood it was a picture of the character of God, what he loves and hates, how he wants to interact with us, what his expectations are – and I never really went any further into caring ab