Receive

Summer is waning, but the sun is still beckoning us out into the great outdoors while concurrently threatening to burn and blister the skin. Thunderstorms periodically shake the skies reminding that tension forms when opposites collide. Warm nights and long days usher in a sense of restlessness and the temptation to throw off responsibility.  When I think of summers past, I recall June days long ago spent trekking the Great Wall, a quiet Independence Day spent on the streets of London, but August always sends me back to the places where formative years were lived and life-altering decisions were made. The streets where accidents happened and innocent joys were lived out. The warm nights when I pranced into places as silliness ruled because I was young and unkissed by shadows that jade...

When You Feel Like a Failure as a Parent by Jennifer Maggio I became pregnant with my son, when I was 17 years old. Fear wreaked havoc on me, as I contemplated how I would learn to take care of a newborn, when I couldn’t remember having ever even held a baby! Shame did a number on me, too, as I navigated the raging waters of exhaustion, overwhelm, judgmental stares, humiliation, and embarrassment. How could an unmarried, young mom ever be fit to raise a baby? Then, I had another child only 17 months later. Shame couldn’t begin to describe how this church girl felt. I had done it again. I now had two children as a young single mom. I had invited the weight of the world onto my shoulders and with each passing day I was closer and closer to buckling under the heaviness of it all. The anticipa...

Let the whole world fear the Lord,     and let everyone stand in awe of him. Psalm 33:8 NLT All my glory is built with strawHe is a fortress great and strongSo let the whole world stand in awe As we transgress His perfect lawWithout love just a clanging gongAll our glory is built of straw Never from me will He withdrawAs angels sing a heavenly songAnd all His people stand in awe So deep within my heart He sawReminds me to Him I belongThough my glory is empty straw His healing for our fatal flawRight to redeem us from all wrongCause all nations to stand in awe With words His majesty I drawJoining my voice with holy throngAll our glory is worthless strawAs for me I must stand in awe Linda L. Kruschke is the author of My Name Is Beloved, winner of the Unpubl...

Avoiding Life’s Burn-Out         I love this God-given opportunity He has placed in my life. I love being a mom of three very different children, two of who are now adults.  I love being a wife, a friend, and a coworker. I love working with churches, pastors, and anyone who has a heart to serve single mothers and their families. However, there have been too many times to count over the years that I have worked myself into complete exhaustion and burn-out. In that place of exhaustion, I found myself short-tempered, rude, bitter, angry, and unwilling to share why.         Whether we answer to wife, mom, student, employee, pastor, or a hundred other roles, the common theme a...

By the time I was 21 years old, I had suffered a lifetime of disappointments. Both of my parents were dead, and all my grandparents and most of my aunts and uncles. I had seen more death than most do in a lifetime. I was pregnant multiple times outside of marriage, which carries its own shame and embarrassment. I had been homeless, lived on government assistance, and struggled to put food on the table as a single mom. I had already parented alone for several years. I had no way of knowing that I would go on to parent even more years alone. And all of those things shaped me and molded me with fear. The journey I embarked upon a few years back was far worse than I could have even imagined. Eight years ago, I decided to walk away from Corporate America and accept this call on my life to minis...

Scripture writing plans are incredibly simple, yet incredibly effective for helping us read, interpret and absorb the Word of God. Rather than simply letting our eyes pass over a verse and perhaps miss its full meaning, writing Scripture down helps us absorb each word and really think through what the passage before us is saying. Each day in August you’ll have the opportunity to write down a verse. We suggest using a journal where you can add any additional mediations or prayers that the verse brings to mind. Click here to download the August Scripture Writing Guide! Join Our Telegram Group : Salvation & Prosperity  

It wasn’t a conventional list—my list of things I fear. I didn’t write down my fear of certain places—the deep ocean, outer space, being trapped in a small area with no way out. Or my fear of things outside my control—Justin and my kids dying, my body getting older, my family not being happy. It was a list far less important. But it was interesting to me, and I felt compelled to write it all the same. At the top of a clean journal page, I wrote, “Things I am Not Good At (So I am Afraid to Try)” It is a list of things I have feared doing because I’ve always assumed I won’t be good at doing them. A list of things perhaps trivial—and probably not life-changing. But it felt important somehow—empowering even—to write them down. Ice skating; playing chess; hosting people last minute; learning a ...

Read –  Revelation 1:10 “On the Lord’s Day I was in the spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.” Charles Spurgeon once said, “Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without the wind, branches without sap, and like coals without fire, we are useless.” John was in the Spirit and heard the voice of the Lord, loud, like a trumpet. Being in the spirit is a phrase used to describe a supernatural encounter with God in our lives, and it is often portrayed in the scriptures.  The Spirit led Simeon and revealed that he wouldn’t die until he saw Jesus (Luke 2:26, 27). The Spirit filled Joshua, which equipped him to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land (Numbers 27:18). The Spirit of God filled Bezalel, which allowed him ...

I love to learn. The process of asking questions and finding answers exhilarates me. However, the speculation surrounding the pandemic paired with constant outrage from every side has been the catalyst for overwhelming societal confusion. Personally, one lesson has been louder than all the others—get comfortable with mystery. Make conclusions, and walk in wisdom, but do not attempt to know it all. I cannot explain why people do the things they do; I will not understand how people cross certain lines; I struggle with why God allows it. The mysteries of life should be commonplace for humanity. They are present in my story and the stories of every soul. As much as we try, we fail at predicting what tomorrow will bring. There will always be secrets hidden in tomorrow. I choose to stop fig...

Do you know how to reset? Sometimes short-term memory loss makes us resilient.  We all have setbacks, disappointments, dashed expectations, false starts.  Sometimes we mull over past disappointment to our detriment. We stay in the past, forgetting that we’re allowed just to be present and move on.  In the semi-final heat of the 400m hurdles at the Olympic Trials, there were three false starts; you may have planned for one or two, but not three. We all deal with false starts in life. When Sydney McLaughlin was asked after the race how frustrating it was to deal with those false starts, she acknowledged the potential frustration and said she focused on what she could control – her response while trusting the process. So she regrouped and went back into the blocks. S...

(Photo Credit: Canva) www.courtnayerichard.com I know that with the rat race of life, sometimes it can be tough to stay connected to God’s Word on a consistent basis. With the demands of work, trainings, family, chores, church responsibilities, issues of life, and the overload of online information these days, it’s easy to unintentionally begin placing God on the back burner of our busy lives. I know this from experience because I’ve had times when I have been so engulfed with my work or a special project, that I literally asked God for a “rain check” on spending time with Him. I know that sounds crazy! Right?! But it happened and I’m not proud of it. I mean think about it. Putting the God of our universe on hold while I’m trying to fulfill His purpose for my life? It’s insane!...

John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” John 1:23 NIV I wander in the wildernessOh my body of flesh and boneHaunted by crushing lonelinessAs despair grips my heart of stoneYet onward and onward I press Oasis in this wildernessAppears unbidden in my sightIn its shade I find peacefulnessThe bounty of God’s holy mightAs over and over I’m blessed I am called back to wildernessWandering again I must goNo longer alone in distressGod’s grace ever with me I knowIn His way I will acquiesce Are you dear one in wildernessTroubled and trudging in great fearLook up and find hope to professRemember that Jesus is nearYou can trust in His faithfulness Linda L. Kruschke is the author of My Name ...