Are you familiar with the Bible story of the woman caught in adultery? You and I may or may not have ever been in shoes like hers, but nonetheless, in our own mind, our sin is just as hard to bear. So despite her obvious guilt (and ours), let’s look at this story not just as a picture of initial ...
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). CONSIDER Once again, I’m reminded of the plague of insecurity that the devil contaminates believers with in hopes of getting them off track. I see it tormenting people of every gender, race, and age. And ...
I don’t know if I’ve told you, but I love basketball. And I understand the game because I grew up in a community where the head coach made sure even the youngest Little Dribbler learned the fundamentals. His name was Dean Weese. I’m not exactly sure how many years he coached altogether, but I do remember being a part of his ...
While attending a ladies Bible Study group, I was intrigued by a comment by one of the women regarding a statement from Lisa Bevere’s book “Fight Like a Girl.” She said, “I like how she said ‘Favor with God is realized in secret’ because too many times Christians seem to want to show off our Christianity in public and forget that it starts in private.” ...
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me… I have my own definitions of what a wretch is (how I used to see myself), but the dictionary describes it as a deplorably unfortunate or unhappy person, a person of despicable or base character. We could add the words beggar, bum, lowlife, outcast, scum, worm, and loser ...
I was given a new Bible translation by a sweet lady at a women’s conference this past year. It’s called The Voice and it’s published by Thomas Nelson. I’ve decided it’s going to be my go-to in the new year to pull out different aspects of scripture and help me think deeper. And today, I already found one I want ...
Christmas is here! We’ve shopped, listened to our merry playlists (some of us long before December), and celebrated with friends and family. It truly is a beautiful time of the year. But in the poetic words of Howard Thurman: When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are ...
It can be super chilly here in West Texas– but with no moisture, so no snow or ice, just very cold temperatures. As I left my house yesterday, my car in the garage said the temperature was 44 degrees (which I knew was not the outdoor temp). As I drove the 3 or 4 miles to one of our campuses ...
People have asked me, “Daphne, why do you talk so much about righteousness?” My first response is because my life was forever changed at the revelation of the great exchange God made on our behalf– our sins for Christ’s righteousness. And secondly, the Bible says, “For in [the gospel of Christ] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith: ...
The Bible has a lot to say about the keys of the Kingdom and our place as kings and priests under Jesus, who is the “King of kings” (Revelation 1:5-6, 1 Timothy 6:15)– or we could say He is the King of “us” (those with delegated authority). And if we pause and think about this, that we’ve been made kings under the King, ...
I was recently standing in the yard visiting with a good friend after a walk through the neighborhood when my daughter and one of her friends drove up. They joined us and as we laughed and talked about our need to exercise (which my daughter knows is not on my high priority list), and I had a moment of silliness. ...
Perfection. That thing we are all silently striving for. Have you ever thought why? What is it about perfection that drives us as humans? We want to be the perfect parent, perfect spouse, perfect at our craft, with the perfect body, perfect teeth, perfect home, etc, etc, etc. It’s exhausting to think about, yet perfection remains this thing we all ...
I turned 16 my sophomore year of high school. I hadn’t yet had my first real boyfriend but I had a lot of “guy” friends in my group. Most of my “girl” friends were girlfriends to someone. I always felt like the only one not wanted by a guy. And because I wasn’t saved and didn’t have an identity in ...
Our fear (respect & love) of God must far outweigh our fear of man. At the airport, we realized three other mission teams from across the United States were also on our flight to Honduras. I looked at a member of another team and said, “Jesus sure loves Honduras.” Every summer I travel with a missions group to minister in ...
“I felt fine when I didn’t understand what the law demanded. But when I learned the truth, I realized I had broken the law and was a sinner, doomed to die” (Romans 7:9). Do you remember a time when you didn’t realize you were breaking the law and how it felt when it was brought to your attention? It’s not a ...
I don’t remember why I was there, since we had a washing machine at home, but I have a faint memory of a being at a laundry mat as a child and watching the swish, swish, swish of the old glass-top washers. On the outside, the constant sloshing of water could almost lull you to sleep. But on the inside ...
“They treat you like an animal so you’ll act like an animal, so they can kill you like an animal.” When I was a child, I remember hearing a lot of talk about a TV mini-series called Roots, but I was too young to watch it. I’m now a fan of historical events of any kind, so when I saw ...
You’ve probably heard the saying, “Practice makes perfect.” But this isn’t entirely true… only perfect practice makes perfect. So a good question is: what are you practicing? Because you might not want to be perfect at everything. For example, the Apostle John said, “Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4). The Bible teaches us that sin no longer has power over ...