Oh! I am a blessed woman. Just listen to some of the reminders I heard today at The Peacemaker Conference advanced training events: “I finished four years of Bible college and three years of seminary and never once had a class on conflict resolution. But most leaders (church) and managers (business) spend one-third or more of their time dealing with conflict, but that’s never on the job description, is it? But this is where we live.” “As peacemakers, we have encounters with God and God’s Truth. I enjoy helping in this way so much because God is always faithful.” “Everything takes on a different flavor and a different intensity in the marital relationship.” “HOPE IS…

What a joy it is to be here at The Peacemaker Conference Advanced Training Events! I could fill this screen with pages of notes, but instead I’ll just share a few of my favorite quotes from the day with you: “Peacemaking is an essential ministry of the local church.” “When Christians are in conflict, one of their greatest needs is to remember their identity in Christ—this is who you are! This is who you get to be!” “If you get absolutely nothing else out of this course, adopt this attitude as a Christian conciliator and ask this question: How can I best serve you?” “When I start to read a passage of…

  In just three weeks, I will have the joy of serving at the 2014 Peacemaker Conference. If there is any possibility you can join us September 25-27 in Colorado Springs (or earlier for some of the pre-conference advanced training events), it truly would be wonderful to spend time with you there. But if you can’t make it to Colorado, please do plan to pop into the LiveBlogs and say hello.   (If you have no idea what a LiveBlog is, you can learn more about them here.) Thanks, all! And hope to see you in Colorado or on the LiveBlogs— Yours, Tara B. 

It’s almost September 1 and the biggest WIN FREE STUFF GIVEAWAY of (biblical & practical) resources our family has ever done is coming to a close. THANK YOU for all of the sweet comments and for letting others know about Living the Gospel in Relationships video series. Fred and the girls and I are so grateful. To round out our gifts of the just-released ESV Women’s Devotional Bible (which I was so blessed to receive an advanced copy of), we are adding two books that I am confident you will truly enjoy: Made for More: An Invitation to Live in God’s Image by Hannah Anderson Gospel-Centered Teaching: Showing Christ in All the Scripture by Trevin Wax So that puts the count of…

Given the important things happening in our country right now, I wanted to be sure you all know about Trillia Newbell’s wonderful book: United: Captured by God’s Vision for Diversity So I thought it would be fun to add a brand-new copy to our family’s current WIN FREE STUFF GIVEAWAY (which ends on September 1).   (which I was so blessed to receive an advanced copy of). As always, NO RISK OF SPAM! So I hope you will join in the fun: Click Here to Enter to Win the ESV Women’s Devotional Bible + 15 Other (Great!) Books Thanks and blessings, Tara B. 

(A re-post from 2013 …) Tomorrow it will be four months to the day since my mother died. I cry less, but I still cry. My dreams are not as disturbed as they were at first—but I do still have those particularly troubling ones wherein I am leading my mother out of her nursing home and tucking her into the car to get her the heck away from there. And as I am doing so, I’m thinking to myself, “This is so great! They said she would never leave this place, but here we are. Leaving! But uh-oh. How are we going to care for her? She can’t even move three steps…

I recently had the joy of reading a pre-release copy of The ESV Women’s Devotional Bible for potential endorsement and I thought you might enjoy hearing what I shared with its publishers at Crossway … Having spent the last few weeks steeped in hours of lectures and hundreds of pages of seminary material on the doctrines of grace, I was particularly honored to be asked to serve in this way. Oh, how grateful I am for Sola Scriptura! (And Sola Gratia, Sola fide, Solus Christus too of course. All for God’s glory alone.) I will be doing another Barthel family WIN FREE (BIBLICAL & PRACTICAL) STUFF (No Risk of SPAM!) GIVEAWAY when…

When preparing for our summer women’s study on disordered affections this week, I came across this classic essay by our family’s dear friend, Ajith Fernando. If you are feeling weary tonight (as I am!), I hope it is a blessing and help to you as it has been to me. G’nite, Tara B. **** COMBATING WEARINESS WITH ALTERNATE FORMS OF EXERCISE (Written after a short visit to Ukraine when I preached 13 times in four days) by 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…

I cringed as I read it, but I was grateful when a friend linked to this excellent article by Alastair Roberts: Rob Bell and Don Draper — The Ad Man’s Gospel I cringed because it was true and thus, it made me sad: “If the theologian of the 16th century was a lawyer, the theologian of the 21st century is an ad man.” “The ad man doesn’t persuade his customer by making a carefully reasoned and developed argument, but by subtly deflecting objections, evoking feelings and impressions, and directing those feelings and harnessing those impressions in a way that serves his interests. Where the lawyer argues, the ad man massages.” I was grateful…

When school reconvenes in January, I will be teaching our 5th and 6th Grade Theology Class some basic logic. I’ve been listening to podcasts and reading away to try to get myself ready for their questions. (Having never formally studied logic, I feel the weakness of my self-study and self-preparations. But I’m hoping I can stay at least one or two classes ahead of them.) My confidence in this plan for our classes was bolstered this morning when I read this article by Pastor Kevin DeYoung: More Arguments That Are Less Than Meets the Eye In it, he not only summarizes some of the very arguments we will be studying,…