Conflict and Challenges
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Expecting Perfection
My friends, I’m finally settled (mostly) in our new home and writing my first post for the blog from my new office. I am so excited about one part in particular. Why? I have doors. Yep, doesn’t take a whole lot to make this gal happy. I can now close the doors of my office…
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Guest Post: The Mismatched Family by Dee Rusnak
Dear friends, I'm traveling this week and will be in Nashville for the ACFW conference. I'm thrilled to share this most encouraging post by SUMite, Dee Rusnak. How amazing to think our Lord and Savior Jesus understands our mismatched places because He lived it too. Thank you, Dee, for once again sharing your beautiful heart…
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Part Four: The Promised Provision
My friends, are you ready for more of God’s amazing truth and love? Are you ready to have your thinking transformed a bit today? Let’s go back to the book of Jeremiah and take another look at King Zedekiah’s story. Let’s look at the first five verses of Jeremiah 34, because this is where things…
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The Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living
On Tuesday I wrote about God’s promises and asked you to choose one promise you are standing for right now, write it on an idea card and as a prophetic act, stand on it and speak this promise over yourself, your family, or whatever the situation this promise is for. I want to back up…
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God Keeps His Promises
My friends, I want to take our theme of standing for Jesus and move to standing on His promises. What does that mean? How do we identify a promise in the Bible? How do we pray and stand upon them, especially when what we see happening in our lives or those we love or in…
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Powerful Prayer To Defeat Anger
This photo CRACKS ME UP! Continued from Friday's post…. BUT…. This is what I learned from that experience. I believe I was wrestling with a spirit of anger. I believe it was demonic in nature and it erupted in very rare moments as to keep me from recognizing it. And just like a volcano, when eruptions…
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Good Grief, Their’s More… The Spirit of Anger (2 part-er, must read for anyone dealing with anger)
-Chronicles of the Donovan Clan Okay, ya… There’s more. I’m not sure what classroom I’m currently enrolled within the Kingdom. But I think the sub-title is humility, mixed with a large study of personal revelation, confession and healing. This is a good and can also be extraordinarily challenging learning season for a believer. However, when…
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We Stand for Jesus
A week ago I shared in my post the things I am standing for. I sensed then Holy Spirit might be leading me to share a story that began in 2013 that had to do with the word and command in the Bible, to “stand.” Jesus presented it to me as a question, but its…
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Reflections on the Apostle Paul and Life
Hello, my SUM family. I'm writing to you while on the road. An asphalt ribbon stretches before us as my hubby drives us across the United States. The U-haul attached to our trusty VW wagon holds the remainder of our possessions-at least all that we could fit. And in the backseat our 18 year old…
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My Unexpected Christmas
Happy (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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The Power and Blessing of Giving Comfort
My 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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This Challenging Culture
Hello, SUMite family! Lynn and I decided we should wrap our study up this week, because we have other things we want to move onto next week. Thus we will conclude our Equipping Our Kids in a Contrary Culture on Friday with Lynn’s post about Legacy Kids. I’m sure it will be amazing too! My…
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Back to School: Equipping Our Kids in a Contrary Culture
Hello, SUM family! I'm so happy to be back! As Lynn shared yesterday, we are getting ready to kick off a new series on Friday. Let's face the facts: We live in a contrary culture that ignores sound biblical truths. But that doesn't mean God's truth is outdated or irrelevant. Now more than ever, our…
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Persecution – The Books Of Peter – Will The Church Go Underground?
So…… Ahem, ya. (long sigh) I planned on writing about suffering. So this week I experienced persecution, first-hand. Sheesh! Why does that always happen? Peter shares a few common themes through his two books. Today we are going to look at suffering. Specifically let’s read: If you are insulted because of the name of Christ,…
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Disparaging Disappointment, Part 2
So glad you're back, my friends. The end of this series is so near and dear to my heart, because it's written with a deep love and desire for you to live in the fullness of Jesus and all He has for us. I believe we will see great tremendous breakthroughs individually and as a…
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Disparaging Disappointment
My friends, we’re at the last Deadly D in this series, Disparaging Disappointment. God is so faithful-He answered your prayers for Words with reminders and a special email from one of you (Thanks, Jim!). I truly thought I'd lack words for the last two parts of this series, but quite the opposite has proved true!…
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The Ugly Word for 2014
Hi SUMers! So, ahem, yep….. Authentic post and a challenge for the New Year. Yes, you read that right…The New Year. I PRAY you are set on a new path in the next few weeks…. Join me on Mondays and Fridays until Yom Kippur for we are on the edge of our seat, waiting for…
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Line by Line: Do I Divorce An Atheist?
So Gang. Before we leave the verses from Monday’s study. I want to expand upon them. The questions I’m asking you to ponder address a very REAL scenario in SUMite homes today. I think we need some honest conversation about the topic. Let’s get started. On Monday we read: To the rest I say this…
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God’s Preparation: Recognizing God’s Preparation
Welcome back to the God’s Preparation series, my friends. I hope you are finding this encouraging and enlightening. God’s ways are so beautifully intricate and simple at the same time. I know that probably doesn’t make sense, but that’s how I’ve begun to see Him. Lynn and I speak often of this and how we,…
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God’s Preparation: Time + Honor = Fruit
My friends, this series about God’s Preparation continues. Last week we talked about trials and challenges, along with three key points in how Jesus moves in us and our lives during these times. If you haven’t read that post yet, click here to catch up. This next part continues to build upon how God prepares…
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God’s Preparation: Trials and Challenges
Dear Friends, one of the most extraordinary things that God is showing me of late is how interconnected things are and how often we miss it. So here is the first part of an unexpected series-I say unexpected because I'd made notes for what I thought were four different posts and then realized they are…