Posts from March 2021

Posts from March 2021

An Open Letter to a Discouraged Saint

“I know you are discouraged and distressed this morning. The trials and temptations you’ve faced this past week have brought you low. Suffering clouds your vision. Sin’s hangover—guilt, shame, and doubt—still pounds in your soul. The hardships you face and the failures you recounted to me loom large in your life. They seem to be what is most true, most real, and most compelling about your experience as a Christian right now. I know you have prayed about these things.…

Reading the Bible Requires Rules We Already Know

“It’s easy to misinterpret the Bible when you don’t follow basic rules of interpretation. Therefore, I’ve offered the approach of asking three questions when reading any passage: What is the author talking about in the surrounding text (context)? What is the historical occasion for why the author wrote (history)? What literary style is the passage written in (genre)? On occasion, I’m accused of making Bible study more complex than it needs to be. People suggest I’m creating rules to interpret Scripture…

The Wisdom in Restraining our Lips

”With social media, a quick response to someone else’s words is primed for us. There’s a box below their post for us to type out our comments and publish them immediately. There’s a retweet or share button with the option of including our own thoughts in tandem with theirs. Articles come with share buttons littered all around, followed by a comment section at the end. We likewise have the ease to publish our own thoughts on a blog or a…

Would it be Okay for me to be Angry with God?

“It felt like a test—a test of my faith, a test of my convictions, a test of my love for God. Soon, very soon, after I learned that my son had died, I received a message from an old acquaintance. Her intentions were good—she wanted to offer consolation. But her instructions were suspect—she wanted me to rage against God. Paraphrasing one of her favorite authors she said “It’s okay to be angry with God about this. It’s okay to tell…

This is How He Carries You

“Dear weary sister, whatever you face today, tomorrow, or whatever continues to weigh you down from the past, God will carry you through it all.  He’s not giving up or abandoning us. So lean into his strength. Rest in God’s power. Trust in the One who loved us enough to carry the weight of our sin on his shoulders. He bore the fullness of God’s wrath on the cross so we could be set free. Rejoice that even now Jesus…