spiritually mismatched marriage
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How do I Overcome Feelings of Regret?
Dear SUMites, Ann here. Quite often I’ll receive an email from a reader saying "Help! I am overcome by feelings of regret about having married out of disobedience to God." For these dear ones, it is a truly difficult battle, where they are wrangling deeply with the life they've constructed; and, of course, they cannot…
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Marriage Adventures in France
Hi SUMites! I said I'd share a little of the marriage adventures we've been having while in France. It's been a funny little time. Being here for a month in this rented house, with few responsibilities and no friends in the neighborhood, has meant we have spent 100% of our time together. We have done…
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Boundaries in Marriage, Part Five: Respect
Hello dear SUMites It's Ann here and I'm writing from France, where Bryce and I arrived yesterday. We're staying for a month in a town called Foix in the very south of France. It has always been a dream of mine to live in France, and so perhaps this is the closest I can get. …
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An Important Story for Us: The House in Florida
Dear friends, Ann here. Today I'm going to share a very special story. It is a story that is important for our community. It is a story that is breathed by God's mouth. I always try to write exactly what God wants me to write. He picks the topics. So today this is what he…
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Halloween: What is a Christian to do?
Every year Halloween is tricky for us, given our split households and the pressure we get to engage in it. So, with that in mind here's a post on this topic that was written by Lynn last year. Hope this helps a little — Keep praying for wisdom, and let's chat in the comments. From…
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Jesus is a-Knocking!
Hi again friends, I am on a ROLL, writing about the meet-up. I have a number of stories I want to share with you about this week that we've just gone through. Why not! So settle in, it is going to be story-time for the next week or so. Yay! Let's turn now to the…
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A Testimony, by Barb Twigg
Barb here with a testimony! A few months back I felt led to start praying and declaring that our clubhouse belongs to the Lord and His Holy Spirit is welcome. I declared we’d see salvations, healings and deliverance. Our pool will become a baptismal. I live in a 55+ community where we meet on Thursdays…
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Friendships — A Christian Perspective. Guest Post by Jim Edwards
After our recent pair of posts on friendships, a long-time friend of this ministry, Jim Edwards, was inspired to write a third piece to it. So without further ado, I hand over to Jim — ** Friendships — A Christian Perspective I’ve been much mused at Ian and Ann’s wonderful descriptions of our different friendships…
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Book of Ephesians — Chapter Two
My friends, we are now up to chapter two. I love the fact that it is a favorite book of both Lynn and Ian. Doesn’t the book just … glitter … so far? It glitters in its promise. But you know what? The overriding thing about this chapter, for me, was that it gave me…
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Pray Instead of Complaining. A Guest Post by Lisa MacFarland
Pray Instead of Complaining The people started complaining to Moses, “Give us some water!”Moses replied, “Why are you complaining to me and trying to put the Lord to the test?” Exodus 17:2 (CEV) After reading Ann’s post recently about the “deliciousness of a wife”, I posted a comment about how easy it is to give…
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God’s Provision: A Story
SUMites, Those of you who've been with us a while will remember we had our last conference in April 2019, the Hear the Roar Summit in California. Well, that was impossible for me to get to. Honestly impossible. Yet I got there. I decided to dig out the story that I wrote on the blog…
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Get Over It!
SUM family, today we have a guest post from one of our long-time SUMites, Jan Bittner. I'm so happy to hear her voice on here as she has walked a great story. So now, over to Jan: By Jan Bittner “Get over it,” I felt God say to me just a month after my husband…
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My Trip To Israel, by Barb Twigg
Recently we shared Barb Twigg's testimony about her looking forward to the trip of a lifetime — to Israel. Now that she has been on that trip, here's the second part of her story. Over to Barb — I saw my dream in person! Except it wasn’t the empty tomb opening. It was the place…
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Headed to Israel! A Guest Post by Barb Twigg
Headed to Israel! I’m headed to Israel with 46 others from our church, one of which is my sister. But the fact this is happening is quite the God-orchestrated trip. Back in 2020 I had a dream that I was in the Oval Office with President Trump and all the secret service surrounding us. One…
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And So We Reach Friday: Thank You for the Blood
Friday, the day of all days! Matthew 26:47-27:66, Mark 14:43-15:46, Luke 22:47-23:56, John 18:2-19:37 There’s a song I heard this week for the first time called ‘Thank you Jesus for the Blood’. Well, as we come together on this little place in the web, that’s what I want to say to Jesus today Thank you…
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Thursday, the Last Supper …
Jesus spends Thursday with his disciples. Matthew 26:17–29, Mark 14:12-25, Luke 22:7-20, John 13:1-17:26 No more crowds; it's just him and them. Round an intimate table he washes their feet and tenderly gives them bread and wine. He says this is something he has longed to do: He just adores them so much, and this…
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Tuesday, Three Days Before The Crucifixion …
My friends, we've reached Tuesday of Holy Week. Matthew 21:20-26:16, Mark 11:19-14:11, Luke 20:1-22:6, John 12:20-50. Honestly, so much happened on this day that it makes my head spin. It's not just the amount of things that happened; it was also the things that Jesus spoke that were particularly intense. You'll see what I mean…
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Sunday, Five Days Before the Crucifixion …
Hi friends, It's Ann here and I'm looking forward to diving into our journey through Holy Week. Let's start here: Following in Jesus’ footsteps, we find ourselves in Jerusalem five days before the crucifixion. It's Sunday. This day is described in Matthew 21:1-9, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19. And based on those four…
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‘Water off The Otter’, by Barb Twigg
Friends, today we have a treat: Barb Twigg, one of our long-standing community members is sharing a word with us. So without further ado, I will hand over to her: *** I’m in school….with the Holy Spirit! I’ve not graduated, He keeps teaching me. I’m almost embarrassed to say why has it taken me so…
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The Faith It Took, by Lisa MacFarland
When you think about the disciples, I wonder how hard their decision to follow the Messiah really was; the Faith it took to drop everything and go. Most of them came from nothing, or even had shady backgrounds – they were living in situations where they needed a diversion or change. They left everyone they…
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Creative Giving
Today we have a guest post from Lisa McFarland — Our friend and a long-standing member of our community. Many thanks to Lisa for writing for us, and now I will hand over to her: ** A few weeks ago, my pastor (who is also my boss) spoke on Irrational Generosity. He shared, as a …