Always “Pray First”

I watched Chris Hodges speak on the topic, “Pray First” before reading an advance copy of his book, "Pray First: The Transformative Power of a Life Built on Prayer." I wish I'd thought to do a search for him speaking sooner. He's from Louisiana and said he's Cajun, which made for fun reading. I now…

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You don’t have to hide

Christian author and podcaster Jasmine L. Holmes grew up Black in a predominantly white evangelical community. A pastor's kid and the oldest of 9, she went through puberty in front of the watchful eyes of her church. She said she often felt like wore a mask. She tried to live up to the image of…

Winning the War on Worry

Family members used to tell me I reminded them of my Grandma Mae because of my tendency to worry. I often battled "what-if" thinking and had months of anxiety attacks that seemed to come out of nowhere. I’m a Christian so I know I wasn't “given a spirit of fear,” but sometimes worry hijacked my…

The Beauty of Forgiving Others

In “It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way,” Lysa TerKeurst wrote about handling life’s disappointments, detours, and derailments. Lysa had been enduring a separation from her husband who had been unfaithful, while also dealing with serious health concerns that almost killed her. True to form, Lysa didn’t hide her feelings. She spoke as if someday…

A most unusual read

I recently repainted this faded garden gnome. I hadn't realized at the time these fairytale mushrooms were probably Amanita muscaria. Before reading a book about Jeremy Downs' near-death experience, I couldn’t have told you anything about Amanita muscaria mushrooms. And yet my outdoor garden gnome sat among them all this time. They were featured in…

Defending the faith in the manner of Jesus Christ

Dallas Willard, taken fromChristianity Today article I first learned about the works of American philosopher Dallas Willard reading John Eldredge's book on resilience that I reviewed here. Dallas experienced a painful childhood. His mother died when he was 2, and his father remarried a woman who exiled him from the home. (I still haven’t learned…

Talking with God

As a young mother, Suzanne “Suzie” Eller struggled to find the words to pray, despite prayer lists or formulas. She wanted to hear from Jesus. She wanted to have intimate talks with Him like she would a dear friend. When she didn’t know how to pray in difficult seasons of her life, Suzie found the…

Living a bold and blessed life

Beauty, fashion and lifestyle guru Dominique Sachse is one of my favorite personalities on YouTube. She started her channel in 2014 with her tagline, “Be Bold and Be Blessed.” At last count, she has 1.74 million subscribers. I subscribed after seeing a video on how to style a bob. I later learned this poised and…

A review of Anne Graham Lotz’s book about the work of the Holy Spirit

A power outage this weekend allowed me to finish the 2019 book "Jesus in Me" by Anne Graham Lotz. Anne is the daughter of Billy Graham and a gifted Bible teacher. In this book, she gave a biblical overview of the Holy Spirit along with His role within the trinity, God the Father; God the…

On regaining spiritual resiliency

I just finished Christian author and counselor John Eldredge's “Resilient: Restoring your weary soul in these turbulent times,” the perfect read after all we've been facing. He used the recent pandemic and prophecies about the end of the age to share with readers a way to access the source of our resiliency and strength found…