Enjoy this video trailer for Ed Welch’s newest book, Shame Interrupted — How God Lifts the  Pain of Worthlessness and Rejection: And then order a copy today!  

How fun is THIS? The women of San Gabriel Union Church are flooding my real-snail-mail-mailbox with sweet FROGGY get well notes and thank you’s for the world’s CROAKIEST speaker: They are SO gracious and SO fun too! Thanks, ladies. I’m also chuckling at my super adorable girls who like to make up funny movements to kids songs. This morning it was, “Allelu Allelu Allelu Alleluia! Praise Ye the Lord!”   Hope your week is off to a great start too! Love and blessings, Tara B.  

It’s tweets like this that make me glad I’m on Twitter: “The acid test of where your  heart is: where does it go when you are alone? Your religion is revealed in solitude.” Tim Keller  

Even with its facelift, poor ol’ Terminal E in Salt Lake City continues to be one of the least pleasant airport terminals in the USA. Maybe it’s the constant, blaring announcements for flights that are boarding. (All of the planes are the size of tissue boxes, so they’re coming and going literally every few minutes.) Maybe it’s the fact that all of the rows of chairs are crammed together in way too close of proximity to each other. (Again, high volume/high turnover dictates the need.) Or MAYBE it’s the strategically-located, gigantic SMOKER’S ROOM right in the middle of everything. Total Cheech and Chong. Well. Sans the Mary Jane, I assume.…

Hey! Look! The world’s cutest webmaster (Fred Barthel) just became the world’s cutest video-maker-guy too! (Well, Rachelle might challenge me a bit on that because of our dear Living the Gospel in Relationships video creator, Joe Adams. So let’s call it a draw! 🙂 ) But here is the video Fred just made for this year’s Peacemaker Conference: I can’t wait to be there in September and hope to see you too! Happy Friday from beautiful Mandalay Bay in Oxnard, California:   Your friend, Tara B.  

Many thanks to everyone who participated in our family’s drawing for five free copies of Redeeming Church Conflicts. I was super careful to give everyone LOADS of extra-credit-mention-entries and then let Random.org do the heavy lifting. Melissa, Kristine, Valerie, Dede & Julie were the winners this time, but I hope that you will check back again in the future for more Win Free Stuff giveaways. And truly, we would be so grateful if you would please consider pre-ordering a copy and letting others know about it too. Word-of-mouth “advertising” is so helpful when you’re rolling out a new book. Thanks, all!   Blessings and g’nite, Tara B.  

I assume that most of you already know this because of the big Together for the Gospel announcement last week … but just in case you missed it: The Martyn Lloyd-Jones Audio Library is Now Available for FREE! I still fondly remember my friend Tim V. introducing me to my first audio cassette D.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon. What an amazing day we live in now that we can instantly access all 1,600 sermons for free!  

It’s a tradition that goes back to the early 1970’s … froo-froo-y socks, shoes, gloves, hat & purse for the traditional Easter pic. AND the older sister getting the BLUE dress while the younger sister gets the pink. (Why is that I wonder?) Ahhhh. It’s all in fun and in honor my grandmother, Pearl, and my mom, Kathy. Thanks for the pretty dresses, Granma Kathy!   (Here’s an ancient pic of my sister and I …)  

WESTMINSTER SHORTER CATECHISM Q36 Q. What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification? A. The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God’s love,peace of conscience,joy in the Holy Ghost,increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.   Amen and amen! “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like…

If I were parenting a teenager (or if I was a teenager, especially one heading off to college in the fall), I would listen and re-listen to this sermon by Tim Keller: A Reason for Living My only complaint? He so thoroughly describes the problem (the crushing or convicting moment that most people come to when we have to figure out if life is just meaningless) that he doesn’t get to spend that much time on The Answer. But, ah, that’s what the rest of his sermons are for, right? Absolutely.   Oh, and you’ll have to listen to understand why I titled this post the way I did. It’s…