Soul Sister Time

                Recently I’ve been thinking of those myrrh bearing women who were the first to see Jesus raised from the dead.    These women, who loved Jesus so intimately and only left His side when their obedience to God demanded it, were resolute about doing the next right thing even when their world has been turned upside down.                 In the same way, I see the women whose homes and families were scattered by the horrific tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma.   Their faith made them steel magnolias as they steadied themselves against the horror that entered their lives.   There has been great faith in the men, too, but the mothers and grandmothers have claimed my attention and admiration.   They remind me of the women who followed Jesus so closely, supporting Him through good times and bad.                 Both sets of women become unencumbered with blaming God, falling to pieces quite yet, or running away.   Rather like the Oklahoma women who rushed back to the st

              We encounter fear every day.   It is natural to be afraid.   I can’t believe how many scenarios that I can come up with over one given situation.   Most of us learn how to down-play our fears; we have to in order to function.   The problem is that if we are simply burying them inside, they will come out somehow and usually in ways that we don’t connect to the original fear such as addictions, anxiety or depression.               Fear takes on many disguises like cruelty, anger, anxiety and others.   The phrase do not be afraid was found 42 times in the English Standard Version Bible.   The word fear is mentioned 437 times. Obviously, it is an important topic for our lives and one that God knows we face.   He tells us over and over that there is no need to be afraid.   It’s hard to make the jump from fear to fearless.   The best advice I can give is to do it afraid.             God is compassionate in relating to us.   He totally gets our fear.   He understan

              I didn’t expect to be so affected by the life of Judas Iscariot.   For most of my Christian life, when I came across the infamous story of Judas Iscariot, I breathed a sigh of relief that I was nothing like him.   Anyone would feel that way.   No one wants to identify with Judas.   In fact, the other Judas is called NOT Iscariot (John 14:22) !             During Orthodox Holy Week observance, and I attended church with my son.   I went to several services, and I cannot believe how often Judas was highlighted. It was, after all, Holy Week.   It was the week to get hearts prepared to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!   Shouldn’t we hide Judas Iscariot and his betrayal of Jesus under the rug?   Isn’t it the dirty little secret of the Christian story that we would rather not talk about?   And if we do mention it, shouldn’t we do so quickly and not spend time thinking about something so scandalous?               In service after service we s

                I don’t know what spoke to my soul more this week—God’s amazing faithfulness or my pitiful lack of faith.   Faith is a gift from God.   When I have great faith, I have Him to thank and not myself.                   I guess that is why I am so amazed by my lack of faith and so comforted by witnessing how little effect it has on God’s faithfulness to me.   Just this week I experienced an answer to prayer that I have been praying for over the last six years.   God even gave me a verse to go along with my prayer—it was a promise of what He would do.   Over the six years I claimed that promise and found assurance in it when nothing looked promising—even the opposite was happening.                 God can make bold promises like that because He knows the future.   So on the days that I became indifferent or unhopeful, it didn’t sway God.    He is faithful.   Paul said it best: if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself (2 Timothy 2:13).   Thi