Exploited in the church, but Leah no more
“I’m Leah!” I cried. I had given myself to a church culture that had used me and used me, while profoundly rejecting my personhood, my adulthood, my worth, me.
Treachery and divorce: When God sees betrayal
If you have been betrayed by a spouse: The God who sees you has been there. He hates treachery. He calls out the treacherous - and he defends the betrayed.
Where have all the women gone?
What has, for centuries, hidden the presence of women alongside men in the New Testament, and especially in Paul’s letters? Where have all the women gone?
God who teaches us his ways
In English Bible translations, phrases beginning "God who" often tell us what he has done or is doing. They show us God's works. But more, these phrases can give us insight into the heart of the One who does the works. They can teach us God's ways.
And the future starts now
Even in suffering, even in exile, may you find growing within you: A life energetic and blazing with holiness, conceived by God himself. Life healed and whole. Laughter and singing. Genuine faith proved genuine. Living hope. One-anothering love. A future that starts now.
A future filled with hope
It's the best-loved verse in Jeremiah, and God says it to exiles. He announces to people who feel they have no future at all: "I know what I have planned for you. I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope."
The most freeing thing
The work of exile – the work God wants to do through it – is to free you from bondage that masquerades as relationship, to draw you to himself, to show you what is and is not love. Perhaps the hardest thing you can do in exile – and by far the most freeing – is to stay there until it has done its work.