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My Unexpected Christmas
Read more: My Unexpected ChristmasHappy (almost) New Year, my dear friends! I feel like I've been on a long trip and haven't seen my family in a long time. And now I've come back home. I've missed you! My shoulder surgery went well, and I've started physical therapy. This whole process has been much more difficult and painful than…
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God Sent You To Earth On Purpose- 2016
Read more: God Sent You To Earth On Purpose- 2016You were sent to earth by God. You were assigned a purpose, a divine destiny to accomplish while you live on earth. God knew it would be difficult to live on earth. He knows the challenges we face and the evil that has been set up to defeat us. Yet, He is looking for those…
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Christmas and the Spiritually Mismatched Conference
Read more: Christmas and the Spiritually Mismatched ConferenceHello SUMites: I’ve come to realize that I’m in a struggle to keep up with holiday demands, writing and serving this community. My heart is to really be available to all of you as we work through the series on loneliness. And December is proving to be impossible to do – well, everything. So Dineen…
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This Is God’s Request In Our Dissapointment
Read more: This Is God’s Request In Our DissapointmentOn Monday our discussion was about loneliness and disappointment at Christmas. SUMites, reading about loneliness and challenges in our marriages brings about a couple of different outcomes. First, sometimes we need to know we are not alone in our struggles. A little bit of commiseration is needed and understandable. Sharing our thoughts about our struggles…
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The Promise of Christmas
Read more: The Promise of ChristmasOne of my favorite traditions of Christmas is the advent wreath. I first observed this at our international church while living in Switzerland and fell in love with the candles and their meaning. Every year I’ve used or remade our wreath, searching for just the right candles each year. But this year wound up a…
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Moments of Delight and Moments of Despair
Read more: Moments of Delight and Moments of DespairThe Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. My friends, it’s great to be back with you! I had an amazing week in New York City with my mother and dear friend Sally, who is also my son-in-love’s mother. Definitely a family trip filled with special surprises and blessings that I know came from God’s heart to…
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Holiday Aloneness
Read more: Holiday AlonenessChristmas is only two weeks away, let’s begin our discussion about loneliness and take a look at aloneness during the holidays. And SUMites it’s not only our community that feels alone during this time of year. For different reasons, The Holidays punctuate loneliness in many hearts. Those of us who walk through life with a spouse that…
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Yep, We Are Lonely
Read more: Yep, We Are LonelyHi SUMites, Well it looks as though I hit upon a deep need. The responses to Monday’s post, asking all of you about loneliness in marriage were vast and passionate. The comments on that post as well as the private emails that arrived, are filled with tremendous emotions. I sat down and wrote down…
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Childlike in Anticipation – some reflections on Advent
Read more: Childlike in Anticipation – some reflections on AdventI've always loved December. Living in Australia, it’s summer, the end of the school year so we always had our long summer break over December/January. It’s also my birthday month and … it’s Christmas. I still recall those days approaching Christmas when the presents used to begin to pile up under the tree. Most of…
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The Power and Blessing of Giving Comfort
Read more: The Power and Blessing of Giving ComfortMy friends, today I want to talk to you about an interesting phenomenon I've observed in my own life and in others. It's a very curious thing and is quite the opposite of our "normal" tendency. And I believe it is one of the weapons of spiritual warfare that Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians:…
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Are You Lonely In Your Unequally Yoked Marriage?
Read more: Are You Lonely In Your Unequally Yoked Marriage?Hello SUMite Family, I want to talk about loneliness in marriage. I may be off in my thinking. Do we, the unequally yoked, live in a kind of perpetual loneliness? I know for me, I’ve battled against loneliness for years. I’m coming to understand some common denominators that are present in our kind of marriages.…
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The Sword Of The Spirit
Read more: The Sword Of The SpiritGang, Can you believe it? Today, is my last post in my Spiritual Warfare series. I truly hope that you were empowered and found yourself with more armor, more protection and greater understanding of the real battle that is at hand every day and every moment of our life. We have talked about the Word…
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From the Archives: Claiming and Praying God’s Promises
Read more: From the Archives: Claiming and Praying God’s PromisesOn Saturdays we continue to post from our archives. Last year starting in April I did a series about the transformed mind. I'm feeling led to rerun that series over the next few weesk, my friends, and I pray it gives you more encouragement and inspiration to let the Holy Spirit transform you with the Word…
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Love Conqers All
Read more: Love Conqers AllMy friends, I am overwhelmed by the force of God's love. It is powerful, relentless, consuming and vast. It is tender, gentle, perfect and complete. It is who He is, what we long for, what the world needs, and the answer to every thing. Love. God's love. The greatest force on earth and the conduit…
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A Miller Family Update: Waiting on God
Read more: A Miller Family Update: Waiting on GodMy friends, I have a stunning story to tell you. About two weeks ago God moved in a very unexpected way in my family. There are so many pieces shifting in this giant puzzle, but I want to give you a glimpse into what is coming together as part of this Jubilee year and God…
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Tablecloth Of Thanks 2015
Read more: Tablecloth Of Thanks 2015I started a Thanksgiving family tradition a few years ago quite by accident. This tradition has become my absolute favorite. I'm sharing it today, as I do every year, so that our new readers can begin this tradition in their home. This is also a Family Faith Tradition I share in our book, Not Alone.…
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The Helmet of Salvation Defeats The Religious Spirit
Read more: The Helmet of Salvation Defeats The Religious SpiritWhat is salvation? I can bet you know the answer but the answer is so much bigger than you know. Can I ask you a few questions? Do you serve in church? Attend Bible study? Watch the babies during first service? Organize the potluck? Work tirelessly to organize the Christmas event? Do you feel like…
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How Many Ways Does God Speak?
Read more: How Many Ways Does God Speak?My friends, I loved reading your comments on Tuesday. What a wealth of wisdom, honesty and encouragement. We are part of such an amazing community. I have no doubts that our church without walls makes our Papa God very proud. Much of what I’m sharing with you is simply from the journey God has had…
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Guest Post: Blessed are the Peacemakers
Read more: Guest Post: Blessed are the PeacemakersDear friends, we have some more exciting news for you today. Our very own SUMite, Ian Acheson, has come on board with us and will be posting the first Wednesday of each month. As you know, Ian is the author of Angel Guard and has written guest posts with us periodically. We are so thankful to…
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Was That God I Really Heard?
Read more: Was That God I Really Heard?Welcome to November, SUMites! Can you believe we are already approaching Thanksgiving and Christmas? I’m already seeing ads and decorations everywhere. These are clear “signs” of what’s coming soon. You know, these are physical signs of the approaching holiday season. We see the evidence with our eyes. With my nose I smell the evidence every…
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From the Archives: Feasting on God’s Word
Read more: From the Archives: Feasting on God’s WordOn Saturdays we continue to post from our archives. Last year starting in April I did a series about the transformed mind. I'm feeling led to rerun that series over the next fews week, my friends, and I pray it gives you more encouragement and inspiration to let the Holy Spirit transform you with the Word…
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The MIGHTY Shield Of Faith
Read more: The MIGHTY Shield Of FaithPick up the Shield of Faith Raise the shield when our marriage is hanging by a thread. Raise the shield when the bottom of our finances drop out. Raise the shield when that prodigal child goes from bad to worse. Raise the shield when you’ve said to yourself, I can’t take one more thing.…
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Can We Hear God?
Read more: Can We Hear God?My friends, I love our Lord so much. I sat in my quiet time yesterday morning and asked the Holy Spirit what our SUM family needed right now. What did He want me to write about next? I followed His leading and listened and He showed me that after the Abundant Life series, He wants…
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What Does Thankfulness Do?
Read more: What Does Thankfulness Do?SUM family, we talked last week about the first two keys, forgiveness and love. On the subject of love I just want to make one more point that the Holy Spirit reminded about me over the weekend. We reference 2 Timothy 1:7 frequently when we talk about fear. For God has not given us a…