Lot’s wife belonged to a family with a great name and trust in God’s promises. She even had angels visit her home! God sent them to personally escort her from His coming wrath to His safety (Gen.19:1-22). Yet, she fell into eternal judgment because she looked back to her life in Sodom. She longed to preserve what she had and became a pillar of salt–a crystalline substance used for preservation (Gen. 19:26). Friends, Jesus is kind to warns us in Luke 17:32-33: “Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.”
Cornelius’ conversion account can teach us many things about the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles in the first century church. We see in this story that God’s salvation through Christ is for all the families of the earth. God shows no partiality but comes to redeem people from all nations. All this is true. But my focus today is on that small line in verse four. It makes me wonder: what if my service and prayers to God were like a memorial offering rising up as a pleasing aroma before His throne?
What does a complementarian household looks like? How does a husband’s godly leadership in the home lead to the flourishing of his wife and children? How is complementarity in the home is a gift to a wife? It’s an honor to chat about these questions with the hosts of Priscilla Talk, a 9Marks podcast. Click to LISTEN!
Psalm 32 doesn’t make light of sin. At the same time, it reminds us that God’s grace is bigger than the ugliest sin we could acknowledge. The passage teaches at least three truths: 1) We sin in both big and small ways; 2) our unconfessed sins bring heavy consequences; and 3) full confession brings complete forgiveness and joy in God’s presence.
Continue at Journeywomen Blog
Our household interactions can spark strong emotions and anger is high on the list. Whether it’s a disinterested husband or a defiant child, living with other sinners proves the old axiom: “those we love the most, we hurt the most.” We respond heatedly to the offenses of our family members, and Christian wives and mommas are not exempt from these outbursts. So what should we do in those moments? How can a Christian wife and mother be angry without sinning?
Let’s begin by praising God for his word and its warning against sinful anger that crouches at the doors of our hearts. The next time this rage seeks to drag me away, I hope to pray at least two truths.
A woman in the grip of secondary infertility lives in a peculiar space. In all likelihood, someone at home calls her “Mommy”—and this brings an awkward sorrow. Like Rachel, holding her child can inspire both joy and a ceaseless ache for another (Gen. 30:24).
Couples—and those called to love and serve them—are often tempted to mask or trivialize the pain of secondary infertility. After all, to someone longing for children who remains childless, a couple with secondary infertility appears to be living the dream. But distinctions between types of infertility don’t justify minimizing the pain of either one.
When we fail to acknowledge the reality of our experiences, we fail to look for what God may be teaching us in them (James 1:2–4). Secondary infertility can be a useful instructor, reminding us—and our church families—of at least three truths about our God, our pain, and our hope.
Read the full article at The Gospel Coalition.
Loving your neighbor as yourself is a hard practice. We talk of the polarization of the broader American church—congregations across the country that are divided by faith, creed, color, and politics. Yet many of us are disconnected from people who are not across the country but across the pew. The command to love and serve—not merely tolerate—each other requires more commitment and sacrifice than we care to give, and so we do the polite minimum from afar.
Continue at Christianity Today.
I’m thankful to contribute to The Cross, a Christianity Today’s Easter 2020 devotional guide that’s designed to help individuals, families, and small groups see how the work of Christ, accomplished at the cross, is still carried forward by Christians in their daily lives. This series of 10 articles not only focuses on how Jesus' death and resurrection impact our faith theologically, but also our thoughts, actions, and relationships on a daily basis. Learn more.
For mommas in Christ, ethnic diversity (or the lack of it) isn’t something we ignore (or only lament). Instead, we eagerly disciple our children with the hope of showing them God’s multi-ethnic design. We want little ones to develop heart-level convictions that reflect God’s Word on this topic. So how do we talk to our kids about ethnicity? We say what the Bible says: First, God made us different (and that’s good!). Second, he made us the same (and that’s important!). Third, he has made one people in Christ (and that’s forever!).
Continue at Risen Motherhood.
What if avoiding specific sections of Scripture is itself a lesson to our kids? Do we give the impression that only certain corners of the Bible are suited for families when we limit our studies to known, or easier-to-apply passages? And what fruit—if carefully gleaned—from these biblical family trees could nourish our growing disciples?
Continue at The Gospel Coalition.
I’m thankful to join a group of women on the Risen Motherhood podcast this week. Together, we share how we find rest in Christ through this season of hustle and bustle. All of the good things we do—from present shopping to craft-making—can be an overflow of a heart that’s beholding God’s goodness in this season. May the Lord help us to see God’s greatest gift, the only One able to offer us true rest: Jesus Christ.
Click HERE to listen or find the episode wherever you get your podcasts.
My 8-year-old daughter has the job of reading prayer requests during family worship. The requests come from a monthly calendar sent by International Christian Response, a group that offers spiritual and material assistance to the persecuted church. Every evening, her small voice announces the trials and victories of God’s people around the world. Continue at Christianity Today.
This year I’m partnering with 24 other women to create a gospel centered Advent Devotional designed specifically for moms and it's available at no cost to you! The devotional is designed to come straight to your email inbox. Each morning between December 1st and Christmas Day, you'll receive a short devotion on how the coming of Christ fulfills a specific longing common to motherhood along with questions for application/reflection. You don't have to remember anything, pay for anything, or print anything. Just visit this LINK to sign up!
If Scripture is above all the story of God, then it reveals a God who honors and cares for women. The first poem we read in the Bible is an ode to Eve and these lyrics are the only human words recorded pre-Fall. Following the Fall, Scripture’s attention to Eve remains. Consider this: the protoevangelium—the first gospel announcement in Genesis 3:15—describes the promised Savior, not as the Son of God, but as the seed of the woman. That’s incredible—but it’s not isolated. Long before the resurrected Jesus made women His first witnesses, narratives of Old Testament women testified of Christ.
Is it biblical for a mother to work outside of the home?” The question was pitched at a small-group Bible study where I sat as the only mother working outside of the home. The women around me held strong opinions on the subject and my instinct was to defend myself. I didn’t want to be viewed as “unbiblical,” so I worked hard to justify my employment status. In the end, this question—offered as a “Bible discussion”—felt more like a test I had to pass.
Sadly, this scene is all too common. I’ve been in similar spaces before. Sometimes, I’ve played the part of the defendant, as seen above. Other times, I’ve been the plaintiff. I measure a sister by her position on some matter of secondary importance, and I’m tempted to define her by that one issue. Perhaps you’ve been there.
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.
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.
Before I went into seminary, I worked as a regular volunteer in children’s ministry. My church at the time was small, so I taught Sunday school lessons to a “one-room schoolhouse” of tiny primaries and spunky middle-schoolers. However, after completing my program in theological studies, I avoided kids and preferred to teach adults. I wanted to give my time and service to those who could “best” understand the Scriptures, and children’s ministry didn’t seem like the place.
Our Bridegroom’s kingdom has come, but not fully . Our communion meals anticipate a future feasting. Until then, the sting of sin makes us yearn for the consummation of Christ’ kingdom. We fast before the God of daily bread because our hunger for home surpasses the pleasure of the tastiest meal on earth.
Albert was a former slave, pastor’s wife, mother, teacher, writer and archivist of slave history. She’s said to have “chronicled two-hundred-fifty years of African American history.” Albert served as a mouthpiece for numerous ex-slaves in the era of Reconstruction. Her book, The House of Bondage, tells their stories as a challenge to the narrative of “paternalistic Christian slave owners [who] cared for, fed, and employed uneducated, untrained blacks.” In addition, Albert writes in praise of the God who triumphed gloriously over the evils of chattel slavery.
Octavia Albert was a gospel thinker, and a woman with “harvest dirt” beneath her feet.
Christians are exiles who, if nothing else, ought to understand what it feels like to be far from home, and to sympathize with and support those whose physical circumstance embodies our own spiritual condition. Believers might debate the right balance between compassion for displaced image bearers and sound national security, but in so doing, we must hold firmly in mind our own status as strangers. America, it turns out, is not where we belong either
