Soul Sister Time

              It’s a game to choose the right line.  I always tell anyone traveling with me that I always get in the longest line at immigration.  Yesterday I was standing in between two lines for check-out.  A kind man came up and I moved to the line I had determined would be faster.  When his line started moving, I told him that I guess I chose the longer line.  He offered for me to go ahead of him, but I declined.  I had made my choice and I needed to stick with it.  Besides, no one is in that much of a hurry—it was a sign I needed to slow down.  In the end, I did finish first.  But it didn’t look that way all the time.               That ordinary experience is so real in our spiritual lives.  It is not always obvious which way we should go.  Sure, there are the blatant paths that are directly forbidden in God’s Word.  He doesn’t tell us not to walk those paths because He is trying to keep us from something good.  He warns us that the paths will lead us to shame and suffering f

              You ask anyone to describe their worst nightmare and it involves shame somehow—from being naked in front of a group, to being frozen, to running from an enemy, some nightmares even involve yourself doing something shameful.  Our greatest fear is shame.  Our greatest problem is shame.               Some people seem to live shamelessly.  They dress and act in ways that they know the society in which they live will disapprove.  It appears they enjoy shame.  However, that is not the case.  They secretly believe that it is the ones who look on them in shame who are shamed in their minds.  They deflect shame on others.               The only answer to shame is Jesus Christ.  He alone frees us from shame.  1 John 2:28 says: And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming .  Confident and unashamed are the results of living out the new life that faith in Christ has formed in you.               Th

              I am no theologian but I know when I have been anointed to accomplish something for which I not capable.  I remember having a conversation with a young seminarian and mentioning off-handedly that in my ministry to women God gave me an anointing for driving a 15-passenger van and for knitting 100 scarves, among other things.  He was quick to reply that he doubted my claim that the Holy Spirit would anoint me like that.               I felt sorry for him because I realized that he had not yet discovered the fullness of what the Holy Spirit can do in a desperate Christian.  It is truly miraculous.  I was reminded of that conversation this week when I was reading in my daily devotions from 1 John 2:27: As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him .  His anointing teaches you a

      What the world needs now is love, sweet love.  That’s the only thing that there is just too little of .  Do you remember that song used in a popular Coke-Cola add?  That is the same message found in 1 Peter 2:17: Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor .  Peter and the Coke-Cola jingle writer could have collaborated on that sentiment.               One thing that is desperately lacking in our world is love.  We especially need to express love to those who disagree with us.  There is only one source for the kind of love to whicr Peter refers.  We have one place to look for an example of what love towards someone who we disagree with looks like.  Read the gospels and consider the relationship that Jesus had with Judas Iscariot.  Imagine that not one of the disciples even considered the treachery that Jesus knew was in Judas’ heart as He urged Judas to leave the last supper.  Jesus alone knew Judas’ errand was to carry out the