• servant
    Servant

    The Five Contradictions of the Servant Gift

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    The men and women at church operating with the redemptive gifting of a servant are almost always obvious. Whether printing flyers, setting up coffee, fixing anything broken, or just vacuuming the hallways, they arrive first and leave last. They serve on committees and stand in for Sunday school teachers who can’t make it last minute. Pastors love them. And it is so easy to see why. Servants don’t fuss. They just get the job done with little or no drama. But in the busyness of church life, the ones with a true servant gifting are often overlooked for what is…

  • spiritual rebellion
    Featured - Self-Acceptance - Spiritual Rebellion

    The Painful Truth about Spiritual Rebellion

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    Spiritual rebellion is not a popular topic for the sermon of the week. I think that is because even pastors can be somewhat unclear as to what it really is. The word, rebellion, summons up pouty teenagers staying out past curfew or military coups somewhere overseas. Most people I ask believe that spiritual rebellion is disobeying God.  I suppose it is in a very vague sense, though occasionally I do disobey God, and I am no longer in spiritual rebellion. Spiritual rebellion is an incredibly painful rejection of the life that God has given you. Do you wish you had…

  • false refuges
    False Refuges

    False Refuges: Learning to Trust Yourself after Abuse

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    I learned to escape into false refuges early on into my first marriage. My first marriage taught me that I couldn’t trust God. After all, I prayed for my ex-husband extensively and nothing ever happened. He must be one of the most prayed for humans on the planet since my mother spent a lot of her prayer time having a go at him as well. Because my prayers didn’t work and God did not change my ex from a narcissistic abuser into a good guy, I lost my trust in a God who changed people. I didn’t pray for people…