Journeywomen is a podcast hosted by Hunter Beless. Each week, Hunter and a guest explore how believers can "gracefully navigate the seasons and challenges we face on our journeys to glorify God." It's an honor to appear on Episode 61 of her show. I enjoyed chatting with Hunter on the topic of sanctification and hope that you are encouraged by it.
Click HERE to listen and please check out her other great episodes. I especially found the conversations on shame, wisely using technology, praying together, and living on mission, helpful.
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Many of us, regardless of our season of motherhood, are hard-pressed for time and energy. Our schedules are filled with homes, husbands, children, churches, jobs, friends, and the constant temptation to stay in-the-know of the hashtags, the trends, and the news. We are busy mothers with full hands. And somehow, amid the juggling of responsibilities, we are to nurture our children in the instruction of the Lord. The call to obey Ephesians 6:4 can feel like a tall order for the frazzled mom. A busy mom with full hands might “minimize” scripture for her children, teaching the Bible the way we teach our fairy tales—with a quick and simple “moral of the story” in view.
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I’ve heard it said that in our culture today, it’s not a matter of if your child will encounter pornography, but a matter of when. In other words, the pervasiveness of these toxic images have made porn an almost omnipresent tempter that seeks the attention of everyone, even very small children. In a post-Genesis 3 world where sin is always crouching at the door (Genesis 4:7), God’s grace to my children can include my own prudent and diligent work in guarding and preparing them for the possibility of these “bad pictures.”
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“Our cultural assumption is that we are supposed to do large things famously as fast as we can. But most things in life require us to do small, mostly overlooked things, over a long period of time…[so ask] God for the grace to believe that.” --Zack Esmine
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When sinful men and women seek their own glory, we call it narcissism; when they seek God’s glory, the Bible calls it right. John 7:18 states: “The one who speaks for himself seeks his own glory. But He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” God’s passion to spread His name is grace, not narcissism.
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Motherhood stretches not just our bodies. It stretches our attention and time, filling them with care for others. Our hands are filled with many things. We are busy mothers with full hands and perhaps you have heard it said (or maybe you’ve asked the question yourself): “how can I find time for God's Word when most days I can't even escape to the bathroom unattended?” I hear those words and yet I insist, sister you must treasure the Word of God, even (or perhaps, especially) when our hands are full. Here’s why.
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In every season, the Lord desires my active and ongoing conformity with Christ. In 2018, the Spirit will labor to bring out the fruit of God’s justification in my character and life with others (Galatians 5:22-23). Remembering John 17:17, below are a few ways I hope to cooperate with the Spirit’s work in me this year.
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Do you ever feel that you’re just too busy for the Bible? There’s so much clamouring for your attention, regardless of whatever stage of life you’re at. Let’s not even speak of the constant drip of media and entertainment distractions; it’s almost unbelievable how addictive they are becoming!The reality of this frenzied busyness, which frankly, most of us are caught up in, is that The Bible is in danger of remaining a closed book, even to us Christians!
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I can magnify God with Mary on Christmas for our earthly embarrassments have become only light and momentary afflictions (2 Corinthians 4:17). Jesus Christ has come. He died, He was raised, He will come again. Rejoice! “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame” (Romans 10:11).
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God is glorified in His mercy. He is also glorified in His judgement of sin. In Jerusalem’s captivity, God reveals Himself as a God who keeps His word (Deuteronomy 28:58-68) and displays justice, holiness, and infinite power.But how can God be both merciful and just? Doesn’t His justice nullify His mercy, and vice versa? When we look at Christmas, we have to say “no.”
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Find several book and media recommendations for nurturing the hearts of little ones in the gospel. These resources have been useful to my family--may they serve many others in their
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Imagine the anxiety when Sennacherib of Assyra shows up in Judah, 8 years after the North's exile, with these words: “Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?... Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?” (2 Kings 18:33-34). It was true. Samaria had been crushed by Assyria...would that same hand now wreckJudah?
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Israel sacrificed her children in fire and used divination and yet claimed to “know” the Lord (Hosea 8:2-3). In what ways does sin deceive our hearts into believing that we are “close to God” when, in reality, we are far from Him? Does God’s patience and willing forgiveness inspire obedient praise or does it expose a presumptuous heart? Let's examine ourselves this Advent season as we wait to greet the Savior with our full and humble submission, gratitude, and love. Amen.
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Reading 2 Kings 14 brings to mind Jonah 4:2; there, Jonah calls God gracious and merciful, “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.” The description captures God’s hesed or steadfast love. Jonah’s phrasing is seen throughout Scripture but first appears in Exodus 34:6 during God’s covenant renewal with Israel. The Northern Kingdom was called to belong to a patient God who relents from disaster. God’s far-reaching kindness elects to help a rebellious king and his people. In Jonah’s ministry, we can see God’s mercy extended to those who are far and near: wicked Nineveh and wayward Israel are helped. Who then is beyond His grace?
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It was a Tuesday like most others: playground time with my young daughters. Who would have guessed that, amidst the gigging screams of my girls, I would find myself defending the deity of Christ in conversation with another mom who was a Black Hebrew Israelite? A deep theological debate—covering the Trinity, substitutionary atonement, and Pan-Africanism—hadn’t been on my radar as we headed to the playground. And yet, there I was, chatting with a relatively young mother of two in her attempt to proselytize.
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Our best and most sincere “well-intentioned” plans can prove “sincerely wrong.” But the word of the Lord stands forever (Psalm 119:89). If so, “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
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As we reflect on the narrative, we do well to consider the “little sins” we flirt with, justify and excuse that can begin a “sinkhole” in our faith. Ephesians 5:3 states: “But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.” While always imperfect on this side of eternity, Christians are to guard against the smallest hint of sin. We do so with the help of the Spirit, knowing that--even when we trip--our security rests in the man who, like Naboth, was falsely charged and killed, yet rose again for our justification (Romans 4:25). He is able to keep you from falling and will present you faultless (Jude 1:24).
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I’ve heard people say that if they lived in Bible times and heard and saw God speak “powerfully and directly” to people with signs and wonders, they would certainly believe. God does exactly that for Jeroboam and yet He's met with a hardened--not a believing--heart. The truth is that, in the inspired and inerrant Scriptures, God continues to speak powerfully and directly to His people. May He find in us humble hearts that fear, believe, and obey Him.
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If I, being evil and having no righteousness of my own, know when and how to pray for my wife because I have stood in her place for 36 hours—how much more will the Perfect Man, Jesus of Nazareth intercede effectively on behalf of His Bride, the Church, knowing her struggle for 33 years (Matthew 7:9-11)! We would not have this confidence if it were not for Jesus’ coming to be born of a woman, born under the law “for us men and for our salvation” (Galatians 4:4-5).
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This passage is a staggering display of God’s sovereignty! The triumphs that wicked Sennacherib rested in had been enabled by the Lord God Himself. God had planned his rising and his falling from the days of old. Indeed, what is outside of our God’s control? Trust today that your own times are in His hands--and that hand is immeasurably kind to those in Christ (Psalm 31:15; Ephesians 2:7)!
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