
The Warmth of Other Suns
I know many of you are familiar with the prolific author, Isabel Wilkerson, who, ten or eleven years ago, had a book published called The

I know many of you are familiar with the prolific author, Isabel Wilkerson, who, ten or eleven years ago, had a book published called The

“So, Nehemiah, cupbearer to the king, fought like a Black girl from Brooklyn?” I said out loud as if someone told me the world was

Was it reasonable to appoint a teenage girl, never yet known by any man, to wear such unbefitting evidence of unspeakable sin? To explain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHOmBV4js_E IN THIS VIDEO: This is what can happen when you think you’re standing firm in God’s Word, but realize you haven’t guarded against your

Search Search

Sometimes a really bad breakup is a really good thing. Find out how in “Indisputable Identity” on YouVersion. Read it HERE.

I know many of you are familiar with the prolific author, Isabel Wilkerson, who, ten or eleven years ago, had a book published called The

“So, Nehemiah, cupbearer to the king, fought like a Black girl from Brooklyn?” I said out loud as if someone told me the world was

Was it reasonable to appoint a teenage girl, never yet known by any man, to wear such unbefitting evidence of unspeakable sin? To explain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHOmBV4js_E IN THIS VIDEO: This is what can happen when you think you’re standing firm in God’s Word, but realize you haven’t guarded against your

Search Search

Sometimes a really bad breakup is a really good thing. Find out how in “Indisputable Identity” on YouVersion. Read it HERE.

Today felt like the mighty rushing water from a johnny pump on the Fourth of July in 1970’s Brooklyn–a forceful rush of overwhelm that in

Check out the video below to see how changing your frame of reference or your mindset will ignite your life and set you (and others)

Has anyone ever caused you to wonder about the depth of your faith? I’m so thankful for this interview with Sonia Hines, host of Mars

Neither newborn baby Wesley nor his parents had any idea of the profundity of their unannounced arrival at our front door at precisely 5:00 pm

Part of my husband’s story involves his exposure to diversity in general and then to diversity in the Body of Christ:

March 17, 2007. I’ll never forget it. Kaki was a year and a half old and the pregnancy test was positive. We rejoiced like

It might just be your name . . . When I arrived on campus for my first semester of Bible college, a wild car accident

I sped down 38th Street on my way to meet one of three or four girls I mentored. My college student staple–a pizza pretzel in

NO WAY was I going to be a foreign missionary as a single woman!!! I didn’t want to end up a strange, cat-hoarding old lady

I stood still and stared at this sculpted masterpiece in New York City’s Battery Park this week. Something about it made me want to cry

When God moves, He moves. And I’m so very grateful for that–a little stuck, perhaps, but grateful just the same. Every woman in Scripture I’ve

When I was seven years old, I heard the word epilogue for the very first time. I remember it so clearly because we were all

I was so proud of myself that I straightened my posture until I was a full six inches taller than normal. I was on my



Why Speaking the Truth in Love Might Be the Same as a Tongue-Lashing

Ten years ago this month I stood on the kitchen chairs, sang, and did “The Chicken Dance” after seeing double lines darken on my Dollar

Excited? Be prepared for the invitation of your life; you never know when it may come!

“What are you afraid of?” our small group leader asked one night. “That once it’s all said and done,” I whispered, “no one will have

Just visualize this true story as you read it aloud: A famous man lives a double life. While living with his wife and two children,
Do we choose words this wisely? Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his legacy with this last speech of his–given just one day before

I thought I’d re-share my New Year’s post from last year and encourage you to burn your own pilatos later tonight like we will. I’ll check

An old man is shocked when an angel tells him he and his post-menopausal wife will soon have a baby. A young girl is puzzled when she learns that in

I am fit to be tied every single time I hear someone steal God’s glory by claiming that God no longer performs miracles today. These perpetrators usually have seven

If you google Broadway you get a gazillion hits about great New York City theatre, casting directors, and superstar bios.

This past week our family hosted three little boys from Ecuador who were invited to the United States to attend a soccer camp, and to

Gone are the days when I lamented hyphenated first name intros like, “This is Sherry–the girl who’s still single. . . ,” or “Remember Sherry–that jungle missionary

Ever been afraid of telling it like it is? Afraid of telling the truth because the would-be recipient was older, more experienced, or somehow more

SOMEONE, help me with this–please! Just how responsible are women for maintaining the sexual purity of men? If you’ve ever been part of an institution

On Sunday we finished our BUT-Kickers seminar with one last look at “Relationships in the Wild.” And after six weeks of hanging out in the Book of Judges

“Word!” “Testify!” “Amen and amen!” Shouts of praise ushered me back to my childhood roots as we joined hundreds of people in New York City yesterday and celebrated

This week we discussed “Relationships in The Wild,” the only fitting name I could think of to describe the resolute craziness of events in Judges, chapter

“God, Say What?” Check out this article from today’s edition of Inspire a Fire!

Today we revisited the story of Samson’s wife from Judges 13-15. This time we compared our takeaways from last week with testimonials from our own

I had to blow the dust off my copy of Timothy Keller’s, The Prodigal God this week, because I realized the lessons I thought I

Today we jumped into the story of Samson’s wife, another unnamed woman in the Book of Judges—a book overflowing with unusual, unthinkable stories about

We just completed week 2 of “When It’s Not Your Fault but You Pay the Price,” and what a whirlwind it was! We’ve been working through

Isn’t it strange that there’s a huge, gaping hole in the outpouring of hope for the ones who most need it, yet who are least likely

It’s both humbling and embarrassing to think that knowing God personally for thirty years isn’t enough to make my default answer to the unwanted STUFF

Today we started a six-week But-Kickers seminar with a look at what happens when your life is shaken up by something you had nothing to do

The geniuses at Hasbro had the right idea when they came up with a party game that had players shouting, laughing, interrupting each other, thinking with their

Discouraged? Feeling like no one gets your pain? Need a way to overcome your disappointment? Why not write a song about The Lover of Your Soul,

Just recently on a clip from The Taste, a reality show based on a cooking competition, I heard Chef/Author Anthony Bourdain say that a dish

Redeeming the Sound of My Faith For those who have at some time awakened to find themselves clapping when there was no music–a song of

“For your Maker is your husband—the Lord Almighty is his name.” (Isaiah 54:5) Will you marry me? There it was, plain as day. A

Today is the 14th anniversary of my husband singing me Steven Curtis Chapman’s, “I Will Be Here,” and asking the greatest rhetorical question imaginable: “Will you marry

A couple of years ago my husband and I saw a commercial for Geico brand auto insurance which dramatizes a supposed conversation between Abraham Lincoln

Did you know that the Spanish word for “wives,” esposas, is the same as the Spanish word for “handcuffs”?

In the spirit of coming clean and starting the new year off with a blank slate, here are 10 confessions of mine from 2013:

An annual tradition in the Peruvian Amazon is the burning of “pilatos”– homemade, life-size dolls that resemble the makers of the pilatos, or that resemble public

Doing what completely repulses you can bring new understanding to the monumental work of Christ. See how in my latest article, Taking the Cup, in Catapult Magazine.

If I were Satan and I wanted to make Christians act more like me than like Christ, here’s what I would do:

In honor of my 52nd year, here’s why coming of age is worth celebrating:

We have an ongoing tradition in our home of having our 8-year-old daughter “pay” for unexpected, unbelievably sweet, thoughtful, adorable things she does that so overwhelm her

Because Nelson Mandela wanted real change, he went after their hearts, not their heads.

Not that I want to be muzzled like an ox, or that I harbor some secret desire to be bound and gagged, but there’s something

Make a joyful noise to the Lord (Psalm 100:1,2) . . . without addressing the unrighteous outburst you splattered over your eight-year-old for acting like a second-grader.

For “You of little faith” Or perhaps of no faith at all.

They are all wonderful illustrations of . . .

Is it your fault your kids don’t GET Christ? After you catch them red-handed, then what?

When it seems like God is wrong, then what?

Every once in a while I jump in my car, roll up the windows to create that perfect Surround-Sound, and blast my favorite songs from the original soundtrack of the Broadway musical, Les Miserables.

Okay, there’s that sore spot again. You know how you press your big toe against the inside of your shoe over and over again when you

Yep–that’s what the image says: “I don’t know what ‘made love’ means.” Let me explain. These last couple of months the developing of But-Kickers has been a big

My seven-year-0ld daughter and I watched our favorite cooking show last week in preparation for the Fourth of July. The show featured a chef who had built

So glad I ignored my “What’s the Matter With Those PET PEOPLE, anyway?” attitude last night! It all started with a tweet by awesome news anchor, @danbharris,

Remember yesterday when I told you about my right-bran-thinking/left-brain-talking husband with those “uncomfortably long pauses” between awkward statements and heartfelt, fuzzy words? Well, what I didn’t mention was that

So glad someone beat me over the head about giving my husband the benefit of the doubt early on in our marriage. He’s one of

In 50 words or so, tell us the best relationship advice you received in your first year of marriage.

Wow! Just gotta smile at a great love story.

For all the lovesick out there, you just have to check out these strange, but true articles! Newlywed Files for Divorce After Husband Brings Mother on

Do you ever wonder what Job’s wife might have said if she knew how Job got on Satan’s radar to begin with? Do you ever

No history, no in-laws, no ex’s, no secrets, and STILL Adam and Eve managed to struggle with the same relationship pitfalls we do–especially in the areas

Adam’s silence when he was offered fruit from the only tree whose fruit he couldn’t eat really irks me. Did Adam at least scratch his head

Ever been told something so devastating you wanted to slip through a keyhole and disappear? Check this out: http://www.inspireafire.com/mr-wonderful/

This past week at Teen Leadership Conference, high schoolers were asked to write about significant events . . .

My husband and I laughed our bottoms off one night as we watched a commercial advertising the services of a local plastic surgeon.


My friends and I have finished reading and discussing The Prodigal God, and it has taken a little while to digest it all…Here’s what I

It looks like the bishop scene in the movie version of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables (Columbia/TriStar Pictures, 1998). The bishop in that scene demonstrates what Christ,

I just realized the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal sonS is an even bigger jerk than I thought a week ago. Notice how

Good Friday. Besides the redemptive act of the just dying for the unjust (that is, Jesus Christ dying for YOU and ME), there is something that

This spring some friends and I are stretching ourselves through the parable of the prodigal son (or more correctly, the parable of the two lost sons) as

Is it me, or are these two groups one in the same? Here’s a quote:

One day while I sped across town to meet one of three or four girls I mentored, I felt a sudden, overwhelming, almost debilitating exhaustion. The thought of going home, crawling in bed, and

In our first six months of marriage my husband never actually told me he hated it when I spent so much time getting our place together to host someone that
