In the meantime

Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ, by Rosaria Butterfield. (Crown & Covenant Publications, 2014) After reading The Gospel Comes With a Housekey,  I was fascinated by Rosaria Butterfield's unique testimony, as well as her exceptional writing and thinking skills. In other words, I was curious about reading her other two books,  The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert  and Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ.  I just finished  Openness Unhindered. It is very different than what I expected it to be. Because of Butterfield's incredible testimony of how she came to Christ as a proclaimed lesbian, I began reading this book expecting it to be saturated with "how the Church should view and deal with the sexual identity crisis that is inundating today's culture." While she does dig deep into the sexual ident...

This world isn’t the way it was originally created to be. In the beginning, it was perfect—exactly how God designed it to be.  But then the Fall happened and Adam blessed us with the curse of sin.  We now live in a sin-cursed world, with every aspect of our lives marked by the effects of sin in some way or another. “… for we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now…”        Because of sin, life is full of groaning: Pain, sadness, tears, disappointments, sickness, death…the list of very real groaning due to sin could go on.  And when pain and sadness, suffering and tears, sickness and death make their way into our lives in big ways, it is easy to get bogged down with these things because it is what we see and feel and experience and live.  They are our life.  These groanings--these horrible consequences due to sin's curse--...

“God is love.” We hear this phrase so much that we almost overlook it and/or take it for granted.  In this Describe Him post, can I remind our proud hearts of what an incredible thing it really is that God is love?     “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) This is a statement about the greatest demonstration of love one could ever do: dying for someone that is your friend, someone for whom you care for A LOT. And God’s demonstration of love for us went above and beyond anything anyone has ever done: we weren’t His friends.  We weren’t even just “acquaintances,” if you want to call it that.  We were actively GOD’S ENEMIES.  Yet Christ died for me—His enemy. This act of love is the very core of the Gospel: “ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)  We did nothing to deserve His love.  In fact, beca...

(Again, am finally getting around to posting what has been a draft in my draft files for quite some time!)  Just admit it: Life is about expectations.  We all have them, whether they are good or bad. We have expectations of ourselves and expectations of others.  There are certain expectations of events and businesses. Our employers have expectations of us, their employees.  The list could go on. Some expectations we don’t even realize we have.  That is, until they aren’t met. When this happens, something else happens.  And sometimes, that something else is not always a good thing. (In other words, we sin because of it.) I was rudely reminded of this recently when I discovered that plans I had for some Christmas projects were not working out like I was expecting them to.  Add to that the general expectation of what “Celebrating Christmas” is supposed to look, feel, sound, and even taste like, and  Christmas this year just hasn’t been ...

Ten days until I say "I do". Ten days until my life forever changes, in ways that I can only begin to grasp. Ten days I still have to change my mind (but I'm not!) Ten days until I marry my best friend. Wow. Sometimes I catch myself thinking "What in the world am I doing?!?!? Am I really ready for this?"  I see godly couples around me who have great marriages and subconsciously hope that my marriage will also be a godly marriage.  Yes, if there is one thing that I desire from the very depths of my heart is that Christ would be glorified through our marriage. Oh yes, I know I am guilty of having fuzzy feelings and not totally realizing all of the not-so-wonderful aspects of being married--the small, everyday things that have the potential of becoming the elephant in the room, or the hard work that it will take just to keep a house running smoothly. I don't know how this is all going to work, because I am a sinner.  Sometimes I scare even myself with my sinful...