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When your Neighbors Pee Outside your Kitchen Window (some thoughts on losing your life)
I should preface this story by telling you that I’m a country girl. I grew up in the country. We didn’t have any neighbors next to us; we had corn fields and fence rows. And, while we did have a neighbor across the street, we were separated by our huge front yard, and the road, and lots of trees, and their front yard, and their trees. You get the idea. Don’t miss another thing! Click here to subscribe to my monthly newsletter. My husband and I moved into our current home in the month of November. It was cold. Everyone in our new small-town-neighborhood was safely inside. I recognized that…
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An Illusion of Freedom
I’ve had plenty of experience with legalism and the ritual of dead religion. After all, I spent a decade in Bill Gothard’s cult. (For more info check out the category “My Story”.) Formulas abounded in my world – if you do such and such, then you are guaranteed this fabulous result, but woe to you if you don’t. Rules, standards, commitments, all these kinds of things supposedly made you a better Christian and more likely to have God’s blessing on your life. “Godly” people acted this way, dressed that way, and avoided these things, etc. Performance, outward show, controlled behavior, fear, and anxiety…I’m excessively familiar with all of this.…
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Hate Cannot Drive Out Hate
I’m so tired. So tired of the anger, stress, arguing, protesting, fighting, etc. I’m tired of seeing it every time I open up Facebook, or other social media, or watch the news. It’s exhausting. I’m not saying that anyone’s beliefs are invalid. You have a right to your beliefs, but the action, reaction, and then over reaction is getting old…really old. Can I just be real for a minute? Just because someone doesn’t agree with you doesn’t mean they hate you! It doesn’t give you the right to say horrible things about them. This goes for both sides! As someone who was brainwashed, I feel like I can say some…
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Knowing (Experiencing) Jesus
This is a condensed repost of two earlier blogs I wrote a couple years ago. It was on my heart again. 🙂 There is a huge difference between knowing about someone and actually knowing them. I write and talk a lot about legalism and religious Christianity vs a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It sounds good in theory. I’d much rather have a friendship than a list of rules to follow! But how does it work? God often feels like a celebrity to us. We know (or think we know) a lot about Him. We read articles, blog posts, and books about Him. We listen to sermons, podcasts, and…
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A God to Fear
Why are we so quick to stuff God into our little “god boxes”? Explain Him, minimize Him, dismiss Him… Too often we act like we have God all figured out. What if we are wrong? What if we are terrifyingly wrong? I’m sitting here feeling inadequate to even write this. But, I am SO passionate about Christians, believers in Jesus, really meeting God, really experiencing who He is, that I have to say something. In youth group last Wednesday we watched a short video with Francis Chan. The topic was fearing God. I used to hate that phrase… Growing up in my Christian cult, we had a fear of God,…
