Terribly Interesting

This book on Francis of Assisi challenged everything I knew about the man. Everything I had heard about him was passive. He is constantly quoted as saying, ""Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words." Apparently, there is absolutely no record that he did say or write that saying. It makes me think of the statue that is common in home gardens with St Francis and adorable bunnies at his feet. His real life was intense and passionate.  This man was not some poor man that took a vow of poverty. He was well off and expected to take over his father's business. He had a divine encounter at a local church and took a vow of poverty. It cost him his family. The vow he took was much greater than anything the Catholic church had seen before. He was a reformer. He confronted all sorts of people in authority. His life was full of trial. I was struck by how he would starve himself until he was ill and he often scourged himself to remind him of his sin and to...

No matter how often I read about it, I always enjoy reading about God's love for us. It is overwhelming to read about his attributes and character. God is beautiful. No matter how much I read about him, I know I will never understand all of the things about him. It becomes a constant prayer to know him more and have the humility to keep reading. May he keep teaching us and we keep being teachable by his love. This book was full of good things. It was full of grace and truth. It was full of the gospel. It confronted the belief that God could not possible love us in a way that he enjoys us. There were pockets of good, soul-satisfying words in here. I love how he brought home the sacred nature of the table and how worship and life go out from there. On occasion it could come across more like a text book, but it redeemed itself with content. Sometimes, I would stall out while reading it and have to come back to it later. Over all, I thought it was a good read. It is exce...

I do not read many fiction books like this, but for some reason it intrigued me. That being said, it was a cute story that I read in just a few days. It had an interesting story line and tugged at your heart. Our protagonist is separated from her husband who had an affair. God was up to something in his life, but she was too stubborn to see it. We the many twists and sometimes cheesy turns she takes to be willing to love again. The story is based on a highly unlikely scenario, but it does leave the mind asking questions. If you could ask God one question and get the answer in writing, what would you ask? This book was graciously provided by Thomas Nelson Publishers for review.

Hey, y'all. My man hit a deer last night in our good car. We are all a little shaken up, but at the very moment Denbigh and Lulu were hit by a deer, God prompted my heart to pray. They drove home. They walked in the door to me. Of course, our Lulu was in tears, but they were fine otherwise. Our car is messed up. It's not worth much, but it's how we got around. It's how we get to where we serve. If you have an old car lying around, we could use it to share the love of Jesus.  Our original estimate for windows was around $20,000 which of course we giggled at. We have a darling friend (who will love that I called him darling) that owns a window company. He made us a bid for $13,500. We are starting with our room which is around $3,500. Some of the windows on the third floor are missing and rain is getting in so that's up next. If you feel led to give to our 501(c)3 non-profit, we would be honored and humbled to receive your gift. It takes a lot to run this h...

I started thinking about creating The Gospel Mom when I was in a situation where I desperately wanted someone to preach the gospel to me and it didn't seem like anyone knew how to. I wanted to start a tribe of people, a village that was encouraging and lifting up the fellow members with Christ. Of course we know that the religion Jesus loves is one that cares for the orphan and the widow. How can we do that? In the spring, some friends and our family had a worship night and raised money for an adoption. All I could think of is that I wanted to do more. I wanted to rescue more babies.  John Piper is quoted as saying that adoption is the visible gospel. So we invite people into our family. We open up core places in our lives. We set extra places at our tables. What else can we do? Well, our hope is to start a Bible-thumping do-gooder tribe of rescuers. A village on a mission. A reconnaissance team. We will find out what the enemy is doing and we will aid in rescue efforts....

The giant tree before. Here I am, y'all. I have been doing a lot of things besides writing here. I keep longing to put my thoughts down and document this whole thing we are doing. It's a testament to God's faithfulness and a revelation of the deep work he does in our hearts.  We had our big Southern picnic a few weeks back. It is always such an encouragement when people give up part of their day to encourage us. It is so meaningful because it is so hard to do the work. As a person who was deeply wounded over and over by rejection in my formative years, putting yourself out there and asking for help makes you feel unbelievably vulnerable. It feels like standing on a street corner yelling to people, "Help me! Love me! Remind me of the gospel!" Will. Anyone. Care. It's akin to creating art. Because we are so rooted in the care of the people and in the art we create, we identify with it. If they reject it, if they don't show up, they reject us. That...

A few months ago, my friend Christy was in Haiti working at the orphanage she oversees and I saw this post come across my news feed for a conference on mentoring, reconciliation, and race relations. I felt that gentle nudge of the Holy Spirit to take her. Before she was even wheels on the ground back here in the states, I had purchased our tickets.  I do not think either one of us knew how weary we were until we got there. Attacks come when you are serving, of course, but sometimes you just get deep in the bone kind of weary. Loving addicts, missionaries, ministers, and orphans is hard work. We were left craving to be washed in the gospel love of Jesus Christ. It just was not happening. As we stepped into the conference, we honestly did not know what to expect. It changed our trajectory. It set us back on the road of hope. Every single speaker preached the gospel to our threadbare souls and encouraged us to get back in the game.  We are not these high profil...