Perhaps one of the most popular sections of scripture read at weddings, 1 Corinthians 13 contains a beautiful example of the nature of love. Separated from its context, it can seem that Paul is giving us an example of how we are to love our spouse, children, or family and friends. While it is possible to read this passage and be convicted about how you love your husband, mother, brother, or children, Paul is speaking about a relationship that has much deeper bloodlines—the body of Christ.
Living By Faith vs. Living By Sight
It’s hard to believe in something you can’t exactly see, isn’t it? The popular saying “you have to see it to believe it” is burned into our psyches. For the non-Christian one of the greatest obstacles to trusting in Christ is that salvation comes by faith, not by sight. For the Christian, living in light of this reality is often just as hard. When life is going well it might be relatively easy to trust in God’s promises for you. You want for nothing. The sun is shining. Everything seems to be going your way. But what about when things aren’t going the way you hoped? What do you hope in then?
Friday is for Food: Chicken Chimichangas
I absolutely love.love.love Mexican food. I could eat it every week (or day) and not get tired of it. In fact, I have. In college I worked at a Mexican restaurant and every time I worked (which was almost every day) I got an employee meal. I don't remember a single instance where I was sick of eating mexican food. So when I plan our meals out for the week I have to work hard at not overloading our menu with mexican food. I had never made chimichangas before this week, so I was nervous and excited to try it. But this recipe is amazing! I got it from my dear friend, Laura. Daniel even talked about it all night after dinner! So here goes:
Boundaries in the Workplace
Friday is for Food: Meatless Manicotti
With all of the travel we did during the month of July I didn't get the chance to try out many new recipes. August has been much more laid back. I try to incorporate some meatless meals into our menu primarily for budget reasons. Meat is expensive sometimes! Not all of my meatless meal attempts turn out tasting very well. But this one surprised both Daniel and me. I only made half of the recipe and it fed us for two and a half meals (two dinners and a lunch).
Missions Wednesday: Kenya
Kenya is one of the countries deeply affected by the famine in the Horn of Africa. Thousands of Somalis have fled to Kenya for relief from the drought and famine that is plaguing this region. Now Kenya is burdened by the amount of people seeking relief at their borders. One of the saddest stories I have heard about the people coming into Kenya is that many women are being raped as they journey to relief camps. This is absolutely horrific.
College Debt and the Sugar Daddy
Yesterday, the Christianity blog for women (Her.meneutics) published a blog post I wrote on the troubling trend of young women seeking older, wealthy men to pay their college debt. In the last week I have seen at least three news venues (two from The Today Show) talk about the "sugar daddy/sugar baby" arrangement. There are all sorts of opinions on whether this is an acceptable way to pay of debt. Some call it prostitution. Some say that it's just women using their sexual power for their advantage. And in a hyper-sexualized world, why wouldn't they be allowed to do something like this?
We Have Been Given a Family
In many of our Christian circles we talk a lot about people "getting saved." Usually what is meant by this statement is that spiritually dead people are brought to life by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It's a glorious thing. Dead people don't come back to life. Dead people don't get saved. But in God's amazing mercy and kindness towards cold, dead sinners, he awakens us to the truths of the gospel and leads us to everlasting life.
God's Sovereignty at 35,000 Feet
Those who are close to me know that I hate to fly. And when I have a trip coming up that involves flying even the stranger on the street knows I hate to fly. I suppose it's some crazy way of coping with the fear, but when I have to fly every conversation leading up to the flight entails my deathly fear of the coming trip. The conversation usually goes like this:
Missions Wednesday: Famine in Africa
Last week I wrote about the current famine in the Horn of Africa. It's really consumed a lot of my thinking as reports continue to come out of this drought and famine ravaged region, like the fact that 29,000 children have died from hunger in the past 90 days (as of August 4). The news reports show desperate mothers and fathers carrying weary children hoping that their long travel will mean aid for their families. It's absolutely heartbreaking.