We’re back in the season of Lent, that time of somber reflection, prayer, repentance, and fasting. For many of us, it wasn’t something we grew up with but has grown to become a very meaningful season of reflection and devotion. For me, Lent has come to represent discipline. Fasting and devoted prayer does not come easily for me (as I’d imagine is true for most people). It requires a great deal of self-discipline, which means...
A few months ago, while sitting in church listening to the sermon, there was a kid in the pew behind me who was struggling to pay attention. He was fidgety, kicking the pew in front of him, drawing on the bulletin, and whispering constantly to his parents. I recall trying to listen to the sermon, but my focus was constantly torn away by the movements and noises of this young child. And as I was trying...
Confession: I really like HGTV (the Home and Garden cable TV network, for the uninitiated). I adore the Gaineses on Fixer Upper. The Property Brothers and House Hunters are quite wonderful as well. I’ve spent a good amount of my winter break time drinking in these home renovation fantasies, and I’m starting to notice a trend: I can’t watch these shows without playing the comparison game. I’m either lamenting the fact that we have chosen...
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending our church’s Global Church Conference, which was an opportunity for us to hear from the majority world. We had speakers from Egypt (Anne Zaki), Guatemala (Pablo Villeda), and the Philippines (Athena Gorospe). One session of the conference was a “question and answer” segment, where attendees had the opportunity to ask each speaker personal questions as well as follow up on things they had said throughout...
This past weekend I went on a women’s retreat to Lake Arrowhead with my church, Redeemer Church in La Mirada. I have to admit, that I was a bit wary about writing this post on a women’s retreat, since my past few posts have been a series on Ruth, my last post was about Hello Kitty, and I don’t want to get pegged as the girl who writes about women’s issues. I’m also not one...
I have just recently returned from Scotland and there have been a lot of interesting adjustments in the process, like a reverse culture-shock. But one of the things that has particularly stood out is the fact that I haven’t known any of the worship songs at the chapel and church services that I’ve attended since returning home. Before moving to Scotland I attended Grace Evangelical Free near Biola where our worship pastor would create songs...
I’ll be concluding my series on Ruth with reflections on chapter 4 today (See Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3). I have had such a great time studying Ruth, not only with other women, but especially hearing men’s perspectives. I know that often times when people hear about Ruth, they automatically assume it is a women’s Bible study, but I have seen so much more depth and richness to the book studying it in...
“Do you want to come sit down with the rest of us?” “NO!” “Well you have to because this is what we’re all doing right now.” “Ugg…Why did you even ask me the question in the first place?” This was a conversation I regularly had with a camper a few years back while counseling a week of summer camp. I was familiar with Aspergers but never had primary responsibility for someone on the autistic spectrum....
To continue my series on Ruth (after Part 1 and Part 2), I’ll be sharing some thoughts from chapter 3. Ruth 3 is the climax of the story. It’s when Ruth boldly goes to the threshing floor in the middle of the night and lays at the feet of Boaz. She takes a huge risk in doing this action as she she asks him to be her kinsman-redeemer and spread his cloak over her to...
I’m going to continue with thoughts from the study of Ruth, as I started in my last post. These past two weeks, I’ve been leading the study on Ruth 2. In this chapter, we are introduced to Boaz’s character, and we see him as being a worthy man, inquires about Ruth, meets her, and generously allows her to glean in his field. Throughout this story, we see God’s hesed – covenantal loving-kindness and faithfulness –...
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