• Sin & Repentance

    Ajith Fernando on Combating Weariness

    COMBATING WEARINESS WITH ALTERNATE FORMS OF EXERCISE. (Written after a short visit to Ukraine when I preached 13 times in four days) Ajith Fernando “A few decades ago the cricket-loving world was shocked when a popular and brilliant English cricketer said that the pressure of having to perform according to people’s expectations and the resulting stress often led him to take cannabis after a game. Cannabis is a narcotic. A narcotic is ‘a drug (as opium) that in moderate doses dulls the senses, relieves pain, and induces profound sleep but in excessive doses causes stupor, coma, or convulsions’ (Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary). Tiredness, especially if it has been accompanied by…

  • Perfectionism & Shame

    Reminding Myself Too

    God is giving me a great gift these days—the gift of time with family and friends, serving, learning, growing together. In the last three days alone, I’ve had the amazing privilege of laughing, crying, SPEAKING BIBLICAL TRUTH, and praying with three other women who also can be tempted to believe shame-based LIES about themselves (just like me). Each conversation has been different, but there have been similar themes: 1. Not being perfect. (At homemaking, spiritual disciplines, parenting, finances, physical disciplines, etc.) 2. Crushing despair. (“I’m such a failure!!”) 3. Instinctual resolve to DO BETTER. BE BETTER. FIX IT. (I just have to read one more book on child-rearing. I just…

  • Redeeming Church Conflicts

    Preventing Church Splits (HT: Thabiti Anyabwile)

    Hooray for this GREAT post from Pastor Anyabwile: Preventing Church Splits It is so good. Truly. And it’s about far more than “just” preventing church splits—it’s really about all of the “one anothering” commands of Scripture. (Love one another. Serve one another. Pray for one another. Forgive one another. Bear one another’s burdens, etc.) If you love the Church and would like to know how to love your local church better, take a few moments to read this. And then? Print it out (or give yourself a task and archive it electronically 😉 ) and spend some TIME with it in the coming weeks. It’s that good. Let me share…

  • Singleness & Marriage

    Pursuing Purity in Your Marriage

    Randy Alcorn titled this article about sexual purity, but I think it’s just a great read filled with great reminders for strengthening all areas of the marriage relationship: Pursuing Sexual Purity in Your Marriage Fred and I are really working on the second point—last week he actually CALLED ME UP and ASKED ME OUT ON A DATE. And even though (REAL LIFE!), it was only an hour or so after we had a big fight (!!), it STILL felt so edifying for him to ask me out. Just like a man who is interested in a woman would do. Yes, yes. Fifteen years into our marriage, we are listening to…

  • Uncategorized

    Holy “Musts”

    I was visiting with a friend yesterday about my mullings on the topic of being busy beyond the scope of our calling, and how God might be calling some of us to make terribly hard decisions about important things that we care deeply about so that we can scale back from the overload. (Proverbs 23:4 says, ‘Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.’ We may not be wearing yourself out to get rich—but are we wearing yourself out for other reasons; things that seem good and right, but are driving us into a workaholic, compulsive lifestyle?) And my friend mentioned a term that…

  • Uncategorized

    Busy Beyond the Scope of Your Call

    God has given me a great gift this summer—the gift of time with a friend. We are working on various projects together, and that is truly enjoyable in and of itself. But far beyond the pleasure of accomplishing something, I am mostly being blessed by our conversation and relationship. She’ll say something and my heart will be comforted. Encouraged. We’ll both talk about a shared weakness or temptation and somehow just normalizing it helps me to repent. (“I thought I was the only one!” Nope.) As is true of most of life, knowledge is interesting, even captivating, fascinating. But knowledge applied takes place in relationships. So as I am helping…

  • Uncategorized

    How to Efficiently Deal with MAIL (and not let it clutter up your life)

    This morning I emailed a friend some of my “tips” for how to handle MAIL so that you don’t end up with piles everywhere, or miss paying an important bill or scheduling an important meeting. I thought that some of you might enjoy my little “system” too, so I’ll copy it below. BTW—I’d love to hear how YOU deal with your mail if you care to share any organizing/efficiency tips too. Happy Friday! — Tara B. Main thing? Most helpful? TOUCH IT ONCE: – Bring the mail inside and go immediately to a GARBAGE CAN (or recycle bin). – Throw away everything extraneous (catalogs, requests for money, flyers, advertisements)—they absolutely…

  • Hope in Suffering

    Depression and Suicidal Attempts and Christians

    What I am about to recommend to you is not an easy read (if you just read the transcript) or an easy listen (if you take the time to actually listen to the message—which I recommend). But if you, or someone you love, has struggled with paralyzing, terrifying, death-desiring depression, then I encourage you to take the time to learn from this message from John Piper: Insanity and Spiritual Songs in the Soul of a Saint I also encourage you to mine the depths of: – Spiritual Depression (Lloyd-Jones) – Depression: A Stubborn Darkness (Welch) – Blame It On The Brain: Distinguishing Chemical Imbalances, Brain Disorders, and Disobedience (Welch) Oh,…