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The Curious Move of Jesus in My Home
Read more: The Curious Move of Jesus in My HomeAnn here! When you're driving in the dark it's a great place to talk to a teen. With both sets of eyes fixed on the road nothing too intense is going on. That's probably how a teenage boy likes it, and it's where my son and I found ourselves last night as we drove home…
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Teenage Testimony Time Again!
Read more: Teenage Testimony Time Again!My dear friends, Ann here. Thank you so much for your lovely comments on Monday’s post. It was as if the whole SUM community sent up a cheer of excitement to hear that my one teenager had joined church. The Body of Christ. And we cheered because we get it. We get the pain. We…
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God’s Move in My Family
Read more: God’s Move in My FamilyDear friends, Before I continue to share my story from Passover, I need to tell you about one of those less wondrous 'SUM moments' — Because it forms the backdrop to what I share next. It was one of those moments in church. All that happened was I turned around to see some kids having…
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Introducing Jesus Round the Dinner Table
Read more: Introducing Jesus Round the Dinner TableBy Ann Hutchison I lit the candles, put some serene music on, and let the aroma of lamb waft through the house. It was Passover evening, just a couple of weeks ago, and I'd made my family a special meal. "Ok, family," I called out. "Let’s have dinner!" And so my three came to the…
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It’s Okay to Doubt
Read more: It’s Okay to DoubtImage courtesy of FAVPNG and workablequantit26 Hi Sumites, Ian here. Another Easter has passed. Ann led us through Holy Week and I thought I’d share some thoughts on one of the stories we read post Jesus’ resurrection. Thomas and his doubts When Jesus first appeared to the group of disciples in the Upper Room on…
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Focus on Jesus, And … Things Bloom!
Read more: Focus on Jesus, And … Things Bloom!Dear SUMites, Ann here. I hope you enjoyed our little experience of walking together through Easter. I have to say it was a great discipline for me to focus solely on Jesus that week. On the topic of 'focusing solely on Jesus', when I first started writing for this blog a few years ago I…
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Heavy Stones and Dry Bones – A Poem by Charumathi R. Rao
Read more: Heavy Stones and Dry Bones – A Poem by Charumathi R. RaoHeavy Stones and Dry Bones – A Poem by Charumathi R. Rao She walked down the dusty path, very early on that Sunday morn, A bag of spices in her hands, teary faced and heart forlorn. She’d seen him stripped and beaten blue, a crown of thorns upon His head, All He’d said had…
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The Slithering Snakes of Holy Week
Read more: The Slithering Snakes of Holy WeekWe've now got to the middle of Holy Week. My friends, one thing we see in the Gospels is that those Pharisees were an absolute pain in the backside! No, not just a pain. It's serious. Their rejection of Jesus is really, really bad. Really bad. Jesus shares pearls of wisdom that final week. His…
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Monday of Holy Week
Read more: Monday of Holy WeekIt’s Monday of Holy Week in Jerusalem. With just three days to go before the crucifixion, Jesus is walking around Jerusalem ministering to others. In love. Miraculous, amazing Jesus. I cannot imagine the turmoil within his soul as he dug deep to carry out those last ministry tasks, knowing what he would endure next. At…
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What Does Hosanna Mean – Passion Week Starts Now!
Read more: What Does Hosanna Mean – Passion Week Starts Now!SUM Nation. Lynn Donovan here. Gang, it’s TRIUMPHANT ENTRY Sunday. Do you know on this day the people of Israel believed their Messiah arrived. AND INDEED HE DID. This story is very familiar to Christians world-wide, but there is so many nuances and unsaid statements that we completely miss. Here is one. The disciples and…
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Holy Week Here at SUM
Read more: Holy Week Here at SUMHi SUM family, Ann here. This time of year is ever so special. It’s a time when we lift our eyes collectively to the cross of Jesus. There’s such value in faith routines, and I know many of you have routines that you follow, year after year. For me, one treasured routine is to follow…
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Top Three Tips for Thriving in a Spiritually Mismatched Marriage
Read more: Top Three Tips for Thriving in a Spiritually Mismatched MarriageAnn here! Today I had an interesting faith conversation with a man with whom I cross paths occasionally. I know him in a professional rather than social capacity, but whenever I see him we have a good chat. So, I'll call him a 'friend-acquaintance'. Anyway, today I saw him for the first time in a…
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So, We Roll up Our Sleeves as Workers!
Read more: So, We Roll up Our Sleeves as Workers!Dear friends, I hope the past few posts down memory lane have been interesting to you. God loves this community – His SUM family – and wants us to walk in hope! Wrapping up this series on past words from the archives, I guess I have a couple of thoughts: It's so important that…
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A Wave is Coming
Read more: A Wave is ComingHello friends, Ann here! I hope these recent words from the archives have been refreshing your souls. Don’t we need it right now! After a year of sitting through this pandemic, we certainly can do with a little spark of fresh stuff. So, let's roll up our sleeves and carry on a little longer with…
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Jesus, I can’t see past my SUM!
Read more: Jesus, I can’t see past my SUM!Happy Friday, friends — Ann here! Today, I’d like to share a vision that the Lord gave our community a few years ago. It was Dineen who received it, and she shared it on the blog — The original article is here. I hope when you read the vision below it will encourage you! Here’s…
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The Harvest – The Many!
Read more: The Harvest – The Many!Dear friends, Ann here! One of the things I’m currently thinking about is the word 'Harvest' and how it relates to all we have been through in this community. I guess I feel we've been prepared through some pretty gruelling training (i.e., the challenges of a spiritual mismatch), and that training has equipped us to…
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The Harvest Ahead
Read more: The Harvest AheadDear friends, Ann here. I mentioned on Monday that I would share some words from our archives that God gave our community. These words are promises that we're dusting off now because they feel relevant for today. For the past months I've been hearing God that after this pandemic many of us are going to…
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“How long, Lord?”
Read more: “How long, Lord?”Image courtesy of Janpen04081986 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Hello, dear SUMites, Ian from sunny Sydney. The world was turned on its head this time last year when the first people outside of China began to be diagnosed with this new virus strain which the medical community named COVID-19. The virus soon spread exponentially (a term that became…
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God’s Promises from the SUM Archives
Read more: God’s Promises from the SUM ArchivesAnn here! Dear SUMites, do you remember last year I said I would pull out some of the words that God has spoken to our community over the years? In particular I’ve been interested in key promises we have received from the Lord — Corporate promises for us that we can look at together. Here's…
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Master, Are YOU Worried?
Read more: Master, Are YOU Worried?Hello friends, Ann here. I’ve had a little discovery this week that has totally made me smile, and I thought I’d share it. It’s to do with my husband: Bryce has a trait that can teach me a lesson or two about my walk with God. It’s this: He has not an anxious bone in…
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Are You Weary? Let’s Take Communion
Read more: Are You Weary? Let’s Take CommunionMy friends, Ann here. I normally try to write something on the cheery side but sat down earlier to do that and … Mm, I'm not quite in that space. See, for the last two weeks I’ve been mostly horizontal on my couch feeling a bit physically unwell. So that's the tone of today's post:…
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A Fasting Reflection, by Vidya Rodney
Read more: A Fasting Reflection, by Vidya RodneyHi SUM family, Ann here! Many of you will know Vidya Rodney, who sends us lovely guest posts for the blog. Today she has shared a little about how the community fast in January went for her. It's a good thing to reflect back on a fast after the event. Once we have recovered,…
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Belief vs. Unbelief: A Final Thought
Read more: Belief vs. Unbelief: A Final ThoughtHi SUM family, Ann here. It’s been fun this past week thinking about the different factors that go into belief vs unbelief. Thanks for reading along, and for your comments — Reading what you had to say was like iron-sharpening-iron! I know theologians write about deep matters like predestination and free will. But for us…
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Belief vs Unbelief: The Father’s Grand Clock
Read more: Belief vs Unbelief: The Father’s Grand ClockAnn here! We’ve been talking about the ingredients that go into belief vs. unbelief. In part one we talked about the power of free will. Then, in part two we talked about the influence of the demonic. Well, today I want to talk about the Father's Grand Clock. That is, the fact that God might have…