Trusting the Spirit to speak, I explored the testimony of the entire New Testament. Scripture after Scripture showed a picture of the Body of Christ in which women participate fully and freely in every aspect of the kingdom, and men and women stand shoulder to shoulder, serving the Lord. I also learned why many people who love the Word do not know that – why I did not see it for so long.
What do you do when the Lord answers what you had not asked? This is where it began, my journey with God into his view of women and the church.
Two weeks after I asked readers to pray with me for wisdom and strength for a final push, my updated e-book is live! It tells my story of all the ways God answered, from the moment I finally asked him: “What about women, Lord? What do you say about how women in your kingdom relate to other people and to you?”
My first attempt to expose the abusers and abusive systems that hide in plain sight.
What if the ways the Southern Baptist Convention has handled clergy sexual abuse in its midst reflect the ways a narcissistic abuser handles getting caught out?
Knowing our Lord by name has nothing to do with calling him by a certain word. It has everything to do with knowing in our inmost being the One to whom that word points.
It’s a story from the distant past, with profound implications today. A story of glory on the mountain – mutiny in the valley. Reading it, we can see how the Lord responded when a people who had just committed themselves to be his people reveled in breaking their vows. As we open ourselves to the Word and the Spirit, may we see much more.
Cliques are by nature, exclusive. Wherever they occur in the church landscape, they fragment the church. They prevent the people of God from becoming one.
Jesus taught us to pray for God. He taught us: In order to pray powerfully and effectively for people, pray first for the Father to rise up in his own behalf.
When the "threat alarm" goes off in an abusive church system, the response is orchestrated and brutal. But it's church: Appearances must be kept up. People loyal to the system confuse while pretending to clarify, cover-up while pretending to address, attack while seeming to answer, put-down while pretending to help.