Katie Kafka, one of our teachers, shared this meaningful message with us at our Women's Christmas event on December 6th. We hope it sparks joy for you as it did for all of us in the room. Oftentimes, we celebrate Christmas with moments of merriment: with holly-jolly and oh-what-fun. I can hear the Charlie Brown …
Prepare Him Room
In our Bible studies this Fall we looked at the bigger story that all of scripture is telling. It’s an epic tale of God’s plan to redeem his people who have been held captive by sin. God prepared a place and a time for His own Son to enter the story, to be our Redeemer. …
Better Hope and Covenant
By Katie Kafka Reaching the halfway mark of our study in Hebrews has us learning that as Christ followers, we have a better hope and covenant. Temple language continues to percolate the passage in Hebrews 7 and 8. I don’t know about you, but it hasn’t gotten easier to decipher what some of it means. …
Better High Priest
By Sheryl Murray “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, that we may receive mercy and grace to …
Forgiven and Forgiving
Last week, Kathy walked us through the passages about forgiveness as a way of life for the believer. We saw that forgiving others is required of those who have been forgiven and want to live in relationship with Jesus. Jesus made a big deal about our responsibility to forgive. And like so many other things …
Beautiful One
By Carey Helmink As human beings, made in the image of God, we are lovers of beauty. To some degree, I think this is even truer for us as women. A friend of mine who came back from a mission’s trip told me that she was astounded by the fact that women who lived in cardboard shacks …
Is He Enough?
by Carey Helmink I have been studying the book of Matthew with a couple of close friends for the past several months, and it continues to blow me away. I have been a Christian for a VERY long time and have read the gospels numerous times, but I continue to be amazed at what I …
We are His Beloved
We started our Beautiful Offering class this past semester with an exercise. Each of us was given a small mirror and asked to write down words and phrases of what we saw there. I have to admit some of the words I wrote were not flattering—words like “average,” “inadequate,” “screw up” and “wimp.” Then we …
You’ve Got a Friend in Me (Part 2)
One of the most important keys to friendship is communication. In today's blog, Claudine looks at ways Jesus communicated with his disciples and discusses how deeper levels of communication can strengthen our friendships. Many friendships suffer from lack of good, positive, thoughtful communication. Perhaps the simplest and yet most difficult thing for anyone to do in …
The God Who Lingers
A word I’m learning to live with this summer is LINGER. Linger means: Stay in a place longer than necessary, typically because of a reluctance to leave. When my 12-year-old asks to play another hand of cards, “puh-leeze,” he lingers. When I meet a friend for coffee and 2 hours seems too short, we linger. …
Equip Her 