“You are the smartest person in the room.”

“I was hoping you could do me a favor,”

“You and I have more in common than you think.”

Adapted from Something’s Not Right: Decoding the Hidden Tactics of Abuse—and Freeing Yourself from Its Power by Wade Mullen, releasing from Tyndale House Publishers in October 2020.

The musical Hamilton resonates with me more than any piece of art I have ever experienced, primarily because it teems with the most important themes of my life. Engaging these themes of grace, shame, forgiveness, and surrender through Hamilton’s story encourages, inspires, and transforms me. But above all other themes, Hamilton’s story resonates with me because, ultimately, it tells a story that I desperately need to experience: it tells a story of redemption.

Adapted from God and Hamilton. Copyright © 2018 by Kevin Cloud. Published by Deep River Books, Sisters, Oregon. Used by Permission.

Sometimes people say that their severe loss is like a hole in their hearts. It is so hard to describe that empty space, that tear in the fabric of the universe. When it happens we struggle to adjust to something or someone who is not there. We are adjusting to a negative space, which is completely different from adjusting to a new presence in our life, like when we find a new friend or take home a new baby. What is hard to describe is that we are not just sad about missing someone beloved. We are hearing a whistling wind coming from a space that was filled and is now empty.

Adapted from A Chronicle of Grief  by Mel Lawrenz. Copyright (c) 2020 by Mel Lawrenz. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com

My spiritually mismatched marriage chronicle began in a dance club in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ya, that’s right! That is where I met my husband. We dated long-distance for more than a year then married quickly. It wasn’t the best of circumstances in which to begin a marriage. At that time in my life, I’d abandoned the faith of my Sunday school years and was living fast and furious in the badlands of the Prodigal Nation. My brokenness and the devices of Satan left great wounds and deception upon my heart. As time passed, I found myself drawn into dangerous living that nearly destroyed my relationships with my family, my Christian friends, and almost took my life.

Lynn Donovan is a speaker, author, and an ordinary woman who shares with audiences her everyday adventures of walking in the Presence of God. Her delight is igniting believer’s hearts with Holy Spirit fire, inspiring all of God’s children to step fully into their divine identity and purpose for their life. 

She has been featured guest on the 700 Club Interactive, Focus on the Family, Dr. James Dobson's FamilyTalk and FamilyLife Today. She co-authored the award-winning book, Winning Him Without Words and also Not Alone, Trusting God to Help You Raise Godly Kids In a Spiritually Mismatched Marriage. She has a son and a daughter and a granddaughter. She lives with her husband in Temecula, California. Visit Lynn online at marchingaroundjericho.com.

In times like these, we begin to realize how critical our foundations are. We all strive to value strong foundations all the time, but we all know that we struggle to put down strong foundations. It is often easy to build and grow and expand during the good times without giving detail to the first steps that are required. Really…who wants to waste time to read the instructions? Come hard times, we start to remember how important it is that we not let ourselves get too far ahead of what our foundations can endure. Indeed, foundations are critical.

Kirsten McClain serves in church missions mobilization for OMF. She has been serving churches and mission agencies for the last 20 years. She has a heart to see the church realize her potential in missions and is driven to be a mobilizer to this end. She lives in Georgia with her husband and three children, and she is ready to direct pastors to the various free resources that OMF uses to come alongside churches and individuals so that they can do missions well. [email protected]

Following Jesus as never been easy, but some believe it’s becoming even more difficult as Western cultures become increasingly post-Christian. Today, fewer people identify as “Christian,” fewer attend church with any regularity, and the fastest growing religious group in the United States is the so-called Nones—those with no religious affiliation. Along with these demographic changes, fewer people see the Bible as a source for moral or spiritual wisdom, and popular attitudes toward traditional Christian sexual ethics now reside somewhere between indifference and hostility.

Excerpted from What If Jesus Was Serious?: A Visual Guide to the Teachings of Jesus We Love to Ignore by Skye Jethani (Moody Publishers, June 2020).

I have been disappointed by how many church leaders avoid having crucial conversations as if they were the bubonic plague. Instead, they believe the innuendos, reasoning, and deductions they’ve never investigated but have received as factual, allowing them to shape the way they view others. This, of course, limits the depth of their personal relationships. It’s mind boggling. Having a conversation takes much less energy!

Taken from The Leader in You by Ebony S. Small. Copyright (c) 2020 by Ebony Small. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com

By any name—attitude, orientation, choice, habit, discipline, virtue, or practice—learning to wait on the Lord is an essential, transformative, and rewarding dimension of spiritual formation. This perspective is countercultural and unexpected: waiting is positive. It is not merely a “dry season” or something we need to escape. Rightly conceived, spiritual waiting is a crucial, ongoing dimension of following Christ and loving God. It’s a vital part of our Christian pilgrimage.

BRADLEY BAURAIN has taught for more than 25 years in the United States, Canada, China, and Vietnam. He currently leads the TESOL programs at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He is the author of Religious Faith and Teacher Knowledge in English Language Teaching, co-editor of the International Journal of Christianity and English Language Teaching, and writes devotional studies for Moody's Today in the Word.

When we lose someone we love, we ask God why it happened. Sometimes, we get the answer we seek. Other times, we have to wait. But regardless of closure, grief hurts, and it hits hard. Here are some ways you can take care of yourself while you heal the emotional wounds of loss.

Author Lucille Rosetti │The Bereaved

You only have to spend a few minutes on Facebook to know we are living in an epidemic of inner emptiness, complete with a cast of characters who escape in all kinds of “isms” or put others down as a path to their identity. But understanding the cast of characters in all of our stories—rather than blaming or dismissing them—can be a healing path back to one another.

Sharon Hersh is a licensed professional counselor, an adjunct professor in graduate counseling programs, a sought-after speaker, and the author of several books, including the acclaimed The Last Addiction: Why Self Help Is Not Enough, the popular Bravehearts: Unlocking the Courage to Love With Abandon, and the award-winning Mothering Without Guilt. Sharon lives in Lone Tree, Colorado and is finding freedom and adventure in the empty nest years. Sharon’s latest book, Belonging, releases from NavPress in August 2020.