“Now we see but a poor reflection, as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.” 1 Corinthians 13:12

Today was Candice’s day to post, but I just got word she’s gone into labor (!) so y’all can pray for her delivery of baby Harley.

My sister-in-law is a week past-due and they’ll probably induce her this afternoon and make my little niece come out into the world. Grandma said, “poor thing, if I were her I wouldn’t want to face a Manitoba winter, either!”

On Saturday, my dear cousin got married. It was a huge family affair; I was the reception host, 3 of my sisters catered the entire thing and another sister was the photographer. There were relatives and friends everywhere from as far as Lebanon and London, and it was a very joyful time. Still, when I got my aunt to take me to where the bride was hiding before the wedding so I could give her one last hug, I was completely shocked that I suddenly burst into uncontrollable tears. Goodbye, maidenhood friend.

This Friday, I will attend a funeral for my dear friend Stephanie. She battled cancer the entire time I knew her. I used to give her massages to try to help her lymph nodes drain, and forced her to tell me stories of her childhood in Mt. Vernon in the 1940’s. Sent home with pain killers to just wait out the end, I watched as her body became more and more emaciated. I watched the tears of family and friends. I watched her own tears as she reconciled the fact she was going to die in the next few days since she couldn’t eat or drink any longer. We read John 14 together, and she told me that was what they read at her son’s funeral, and she couldn’t wait to see him.

Two gals I work with also had people close to them die in the last month. We have all had our tearful exchanges about how much we hate death. We are comforted to know that we don’t have to be at peace with death - that it is our enemy - and that Jesus truly has conquered it.

All this has me thinking a lot about life recently. How short it is, how quickly we come and go. That there really is only hope in Jesus to live now, and our only hope for after life is Him also. Jesus IS life.

It makes the little things - the little fights, the striving to have the best and the newest fill-in-the-blank, the pompousness and pride of so many things that are “meaningless! meaningless!” - it makes them look as petty as they are. And the things that get overlooked… like my little girl cousins begging me to dance with them at the wedding and tell them their dresses are pretty … suddenly become so very important.

“The devil made me do it,” is kind of a joke excuse, especially in a day when most of us scoff at the spiritual due to the presence of overwhelming material. 

But what about, “I couldn’t help it”? or “I just couldn’t take it any more”? or “I just couldn’t resist”? or “you have no idea what I was going through, it was my only option” or “You don’t understand how strong the temptation was.” Or, one I really hear all the time from ladies, “well, I was PMSing, so of course I couldn’t help but ________” (fill in the blank with the sinful action). 

I just shook my Bible really hard, but no “You Had PMS - Get Out of Jail Free” Chance cards fell out.

Instead, I am reminded, again, of 1 Corinthians 10:13. This verse has been ruining my fun and excuses since I memorized it as a child. Of all the verses I memorized and promptly forgot, it would’ve been incredibly convenient to have had this one join the fell-out-the-back-of-my-mind club, but no. It’s super-glued. And I can almost see the Holy Spirit smile as He quotes it to my brain when I am about to make an excuse to condone some sinful action I’d really like to take.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13

What? The temptations I face are common? This should discourage excuses for sin, but should encourage you to know: other people have walked in your shoes. Really. 

God … will not let you be tempted beyond your ability … he will also provide a way of escape. Again, this should discourage your excuses. The Bible is clear: you CAN help it - because God will not allow you to be tempted beyond your ability to resist. Not only that, he DOES make a way for you to escape temptation. What’s the encouragement? You truly can resist and flee. You may feel overwhelmed, and yes, you may get really awful PMS or have a terrible day, and you may feel totally alone and trapped in a tempting situation. But God has promised to make a way to escape. Believe Him. Get out. Run.

Pastor Mark preached about praying before temptation recently, when he taught on the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

In 1 Corinthians 10:13 we have that promise of a way to escape. Pray before temptation, but when it is in your face, pray for that way to escape. With the Holy Spirit, you WILL be able to bear it. 

-Adriel

I want to say thank you to the 44 who took time to respond to our survey. I don’t know if that number strikes you as large or small, and, honestly, I don’t know if I think of it in terms of size. What I know is that we received some really good feedback, and enough of it to see some consistent patterns in our readers and their thoughts on the Reforming the Feminine blog.

We’re stealing about 12% of the Vox Pop Network’s traffic (this is where I’d hope we be - I don’t want all the attention, but I am glad we are read!), and between July 11 and August 10th this summer, we got 5828 unique page views.

It’s totally humbling that so many of you took the time to fill in the survey boxes with your thoughts. I am humbled that you read our words and pay attention to what we have to say. Thank you for listening. It’s an honor.

So what did we learn from you?

1. 53% of you have no immediate connection to (more…)

I’m sitting in my apartment right now, normally my haven of rest. But this last week it has been my Jonah-in-the-whale experience. I am debating over clicking “publish” after I write these things, because they are not resolved and they don’t make me look good.

I’m thinking through the book of Jonah - I had to read ahead of our preaching because a) it was a story and b) it’s short. Here’s my brief summary:

1. God tells Jonah to go to Ninevah to tell them they’re doomed; Jonah is racist and elitist and by his own admission (in chapter 4) doesn’t want to go because he doesn’t want God to have mercy on them if and when they repent.

2. God puts Jonah in the underwater slammer of sorts, to repent. Jonah comes to a place where he acknowledges he is small and defenseless, and God is huge and powerful, and his only hope. But try to find any “I’m sorry”s or heart changes.

3. God tells Jonah to go to Ninevah again. This time he goes, only walks into the city partway, announces doom and gloom. The people repent, and God spares them.

4. Jonah is royally ticked off and a conversation ensues between himself and God revealing Jonah’s judgmental, self-righteous and wicked heart that looks nothing like God’s merciful and compassionate one. The line that keeps sticking out to me is God saying “Do you do well to be angry?” and Jonah’s clearly irrational and emotional response, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to DIE.”

I’m writing you in the midst of (more…)

Hello readers,

I really appreciate all your love and support and the way you encourage us in our writing. I am so thankful that you honor us by taking time out of your day to read about our lives. I am humbled by the feedback we get when you tell us that we spoke truth into your hearts.

We’ve been online for 1.5 years!

With that said, I am asking you to pray for me as I think ahead to the future and how we can better serve you women through this blog. Will you take just a minute to pray for me? Pray for wisdom and ears to hear. 

Last, I want to welcome feedback from our readers. Would you consider filling out this form? It shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes max.

-Adriel

Today at work we started our first Pastor Training Program session. Yesterday I put in 14 hours solid and then today another 14 and I am so tired I have tunnel vision, but I have to write before crashing [and I'm out of laundry and am waiting for a load].

I’m not sure who reads my posts, or what they’ve gathered of information about me, but since October last year, I have worked at Mars Hill as Pastor Scott Thomas’ assistant. He is an elder here at MHC and director of the Acts 29 Network and over the Church Planting Branch. If you think that’s a mouthful, just know I left out 8-12 more roles he has. 

I am almost too tired to be coherent, so I apologize ahead of time to the early readers who will pick this up and catch my spelling and logic errors before I go back and edit them tomorrow.

I’m writing now to tell you I am really happy and absolutely thrilled about the next few days and year. I prayed in my car a lot today for the guys coming in from all over the country - there’s 12 of them - and for the 4 elders I work with in our department who will be training. These 12 guys are training as pastors of new churches - some are rolling, some are gathering speed, some are just a concept in the mind and a burning in the heart right now. Church planting! Mission work! People who have no idea Jesus loves them and died for them will hear!

After all the months of preparation, it was a joy to shake their hands and realize they’re real people and they aren’t just thinking about telling people about preaching the good news and making disciples, they’re jumping into it full-force. These are dudes who love Jesus, love their families, and want folks to meet Jesus and be transformed. These are guys who, because of their example and the preaching of Scripture, will bring the gospel to those seeking and lost.

I remember when I was 9 I really wanted to go and love people who needed love and tell them about Jesus so they wouldn’t be sad or feel lonely.

I remember as a teenager having angst-filled discussions with my best friend late into the night as we discussed how it always seemed that dads were the ones behind everything wrong with our messed up friends and families - girls and boys alike. Every time we tried to trace the source of issues, it came down to an abusive or distant or mocking or absent or harsh father, who also had an abusive or distant or mocking etc father. I remember us crying and praying and saying “God, fix the men - the bad fathers ruin everyone!” I wanted to stop the never-ending chain of fathers being bad dads and their sons growing up to be bad dads, too. And my best friend and I prayed because we knew even then that it would take God and other men who loved Jesus to make the chain stop, and no matter how much we loved our guy friends, we couldn’t fix them and that there was a man-to-man need we couldn’t even approach.

How does this matter to us ladies? Men taking action to train and to plant churches means that more MEN will meet Jesus and stop taking advantage of us, leaving us as single moms, abusing us and our kids, forcing us to take on double responsibilities of men and women, ripping us off, taking and not giving, being dead weight on our couches, lying to us, etc.

All this to say. I am amazed that God in his kindness and great sense of humor has put me in a position where I get to see my 9 year old dream and my teenage prayers start to become real. In a hidden way (with a great view!) I get to help plant churches where people are meeting Jesus. In another hidden way, I get to help great Jesus-loving men get together to train more great Jesus-loving men whose lives are being transformed to become godly in loving, leading and caring for those around them.

More Jesus, more love. Amen.

Good night.

I was just sorting through some old emails and trying to downsize my inbox and found an old one I saved from my Mom. I called her in tears and kind of blew up on her because I was having boy problems and she never hears from me on boy problems EVER, but she stepped right up to it and was very good at calming me down and helping me think things through logically. In fact, her statements were so clear and concrete, I remember whimpering to her, “will you please email those to me so I can remind myself?” and she did the next morning. Here they are.   

1. It is all right for you to tell other people that you do not want to talk about men. Or anything in your private life.
2. You have the right to choose who you allow to talk with you about men.
3. You have the right to take the time you need to decide if a man is the right man for you to marry.
4. Hurry is not a virtue in choosing a mate. (Marry in haste, repent at leisure)
5. A second date is NOT a decision to marry. It is a second look, that is all.
6. A third date is NOT a decision to marry. It is a third look, that is all.
7. Repeat 5 and 6.
8. It is all right to admit you don’t know what you want. It is essential, actually. Until you are honest, you will never know.
9. First steps for you will be to seek God for wisdom about why you are so upset about others’ interest in you. Then seek God for what to do about it. Then respond according to His leading. The business about So-and-So takes a back seat to this, because it will return with ANYONE you want to get to know. When this is straightened out, I think you will be able to think and feel more clearly about So-and-So.
 
Do you remember runaway bride? I struck me that she always had her eggs done the same way her current beau wanted them; part of her ‘growing up’ was when she took the time to test taste eggs to see which way she really liked them. Talk to God about So-and-So and other men. Let Him talk back. It is an adventure, that is for sure. I am praying for you.
Love,
Mom

I had a good talk over a cigar with Cambria last weekend. We always have a good talk over a cigar. While our once vigorously planned “quarterly goal” meetings have been shelved for the last few quarters, we decided it was time to talk Summer Quarterly Goals.

I was bemoaning the fact that my previous goals that I once was so disciplined about now were all obsolete as I lacked any motivation to get up at 5am, read my bible for 1/2 an hour and go running 5x a week, make all my lunches a month in advance and freeze them, etc.

She said, “maybe you need to figure out your mission for this summer and build your life around that instead of trying to get all those little chores disciplined. The mission will make you be disciplined around it.” So I have been trying to think about my mission this summer.

I thought about why I don’t “have time” to be on mission or do things that are healthy for me. And Mark preached on idolatry.

I realized, sheerly by reviewing how my time was spent, where my idols were.

It was time to think about this deeply, so instead of calling my friends, going out for late Sunday night happy hour,  or going home to clean up the house before another week started… I headed out to Golden Gardens to think through stuff and talk to God. It was God date time.

I pulled into a parking spot to view the beautiful sunset knowing full well that pretty much every other car pulled up would be hosting a couple’s make-out session, but (more…)

If you call the Wedgwood campus home and somehow missed it on the Wedgwood blog . . . Don’t miss out on a great opportunity to spend time with the WW ladies on June 20th! For more info, read this post.