Caryn & Jeremy in the Morning

Getting conned could be as simple as a stranger knowing your name. Be careful. Thankfully after years of being involved in the scamming business, these ex-con artists are sharing their secrets so that you and I can avoid getting scammed!

One Sunday at church, a woman named Ann showed up. From the start, it was clear that her life had been shredded up by hard living. Ann explained to our greeters that she was in recovery from an opioid addiction (specifically, heroin), to which the needle streaks and scars on her arms gave witness. She was barely 30-days sober.

The people at the rehab center had encouraged her to “add religion” to her life because religious involvement tends to decrease the chances of relapse.

On her way to the worship service, Ann dropped her two boys off at the nursery. When she returned after the service, a woman named Jane broke some bad news to her. During the service, Ann’s two boys had been aggressive with several of the other children and broke several of the toys. Humbly, Jane said to Ann, “I’m so sorry to tell you all this, but I thought that as the boys’ mother, you would want to know.”

Impulsively, Ann responded by yelling a cuss word in front of several children and parents.

What happened next caused my heart to sink. First, silence. Next, an embarrassed, burning blush rising to Ann’s face. Then, Ann walking the walk of shame from the nursery and out the door, forlorn and beaten down—no doubt for the umpteenth time in her life—by the shame and regret and the familiar feeling of failure.

It would be easy for our church to recover from this nursery incident with Ann and her boys. But would Ann recover? Could Ann recover from the shame that she carried out the door—the shame of a mother and recovering addict who took a risk, went to church, and bellowed an obscenity in front of all the children? Sadly, probably not.

But Jane had an idea. What if she could reassure Ann in the same way that the angel of the risen Jesus reassured the once-demon-possessed Mary Magdalene and the coward-betrayer Peter (Romans 16:1-8)? What if, roughly 2,000 years after the fact, the resurrection story could be re-enacted with life-giving, shame-reversing, community-forming words delivered not by an angel, but this time by Jane, the nursery worker?

This is an adapted excerpt from Irresistible Faith: Become the Kind of Christian That the World Can’t Resist by Scott Sauls.

It's the story that just doesn't seem to want to go away. The College Admissions Scandal is one that is all over the headlines as more than 50 people are involved in what is being called the "biggest college admissions scandal in history." However, it does seem that Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman are the faces of it as they are most likely the most well-known of the guilty involved. 

So if you were in their shoes, what's next? Jeff says that the best way for anyone who has been caught in a mistake is to simply own it. Not only because it feels liberating, but it also exhibits more empathy from people around you as they hear of the news. 

The truth is that EVERYONE has done something that they would be devastated if the world found out about and if our thoughts and actions were put on display for the whole world to see, we would be in the same exact situation! But we can find comfort knowing that as we repent of our sins, God doesn't hold that over us and he certainly doesn't make us earn His love again after being unfaithful to Him. His work for us has already been done on the cross and Jesus has taken full and final responsibility for that sin! So if you're struggling with a mistake that you've made, just own it and find relief knowing that Christ has already forgiven you!

Dear Jeff and Rebecca,

I've worked at a small company for almost a year. My boss's boss has been calling me by the wrong name the whole time. I don't see her all that often, but when I do, it's very embarrassing. I've heard Jeff say that he is a "conflict avoider," and so am I! I feel like I've let it go on for too long now to say anything. Should I just leave it alone?

What do you think?

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Rebecca is currently reading a book called "Dwell" which is a book written by Dr. Barry Jones who is a Professor at Dallas Theological Seminary as well as the Pastor of Irving Bible Church. This book reminds her of exactly why she loves constantly studying the Bible because it highlights the fact that the Old Testament points to Jesus the entire time and the New Testament points back to the Old Testament. 

It's really amazing because Jesus is exactly who the Old Testament said he would be but one thing you may not know was that the most popular term used to describe Jesus was compassion. That was the word that the Gospel authors used because Jesus never looked at unbelievers with scorn but rather he looked at them with compassion because they were like "lost sheep without a shepherd." We need to remember that as we study God's word because God looks at us with those same eyes of compassion.

It's a question that Rebecca gets asked a lot but frankly, she hates it. This is because she has kind of stepped away from the whole idea of what's considered a "life verse" since so many people pick verses that end up being taken out of context. So the one that she always reverts back to is Jeremiah 17:9 and let's just say it isn't exactly a "feel good" verse or one that a woman's conference would be built upon.

It says:

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" - Jeremiah 17:9

It's not exactly what you were hoping for, was it? Well, the reality is that this is her favorite verse because it explains us. It helps us make sense of ourselves because I think we can all resonate with Romans 7 when Paul writes:

"We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it." (Romans 7:14-20)

We don't understand the things that we think or do and honestly, we can't say that we've ever had a pure motive because we can't be good on our own. This verse in Jeremiah is a giant arrow that points to Christ because God saw us at our worst and He gives us His best. Jesus gave us His perfect record and took the punishment of our sin on Himself.

In what is being called the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted, wealthy parents, Hollywood actresses, coaches, and college prep executives have been accused of carrying out a nationwide fraud to get students into prestigious universities, according to a federal indictment.

So what does this say about our culture when it comes to how much we value success, achievement, and status?

Our society struggles with this idea that our identity should be wrapped up in how our kids turn out, how successful our career is, or how much possessions we have. When it comes to our relationship with God, it can even be a bigger struggle because sometimes we falsely view God as somebody that we have to work for in order to earn his respect and love. However, this should be good news for you because that couldn't be further from the truth.

Even if we believe that the work has already been done on the cross, our behavior will always betray our belief. It's a constant thing that we need to remind ourselves of and it's simply that whether we achieve a lot or achieve nothing, our status with God isn't affected at all because the work has already been done! Our identity is so firmly rooted in who he says we are. Rest in that peace today!

What makes Christmas the best holiday of the year? Just let 7-year-old Abigail Dorn count the ways. Over the past two months, Abigail has donated more than $300 in food to the Community Storehouse in Fort Worth. “The community can be impacted tenfold by having just one more child with a heart as big as hers,” said Brandon Board, director of sales at the Community Storehouse.

Abigail plans to do much more. “No one would be needy,” she said before taking a moment to think. “Well, maybe a few people, but a less amount of people than there was in the first place.”

As long as there’s a need, there will be one little girl and her beads.

When Jeff was living in New York at the age of 12, he had a little accident with the snowmobile. Considering that the snowmobile wasn't cheap by any means, Jeff was sure his dad would kill him once he found out. But instead of a massive rage, Jeff's dad responded with grace and said, "Let's fix this together."

It was this situation that taught him a lot about the difference between the Gospel and religion. You see, in this case, religion is saying, "I've messed up, my dad is going to kill me" but through the scope of the Gospel, the response would then be, "I've messed up, I need to call my dad. 

Regardless of your mistakes and screwups, you can find comfort knowing that God won't distance himself from you but rather He will draw near to you as you call out to Him!