In the summer of 2013, I was sitting at church waiting for the arrival of my Sunday School students who, for some reason, were all late that morning. I had already done everything I needed to do to prepare my classroom, had prayed over the upcoming class, and had straightened things that didn’t really need …
When I was a very small girl, Dad and I went on a carnival ride. They called it the Octopus. Maybe you’ve heard about it and its ridiculous tentacles. I was terrified throughout the ride, but the end is most indelibly impressed in my memory. I remember lying on my back as the ride came …
I am not a fan of heights. In fact, I once wrote an entire blog about that. Despite my distaste for high places, I love hiking in the mountains. I’m not a blaze-your-own trail, wander-through-the-wilderness, hike-for-days-on-end kind of hiker—but I love a good day-hike on a well-groomed, well-MARKED trail. Several years ago, I had the …
Week 12: James and the Fatherless Day 5: When It’s Okay To Be Dumb (James 1:19, 20) The silence behind the bathroom door concerned me. I could hear the shower running, but nothing else. There should be movement. I knocked, but there was no answer. “Alosha, what are you doing?” I said loudly. “What?” Came …
Week 12: James and the Fatherless Day 4: Are You Listening? (James 1:19) Don’t you hate that feeling of talking to someone, telling them something really important, all the while knowing they aren’t listening to you? In those moments, it can be difficult to resist the temptation to say, “And then a watermelon crossed the …
Week 12: James and the Fatherless Day 3: Every Good Gift (James 1:17,18) “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17 Some of the things that happen in our lives don’t seem like gifts, …
Week 12: James and the Fatherless Day 2: Confronting Wrong Reasoning (James 1:13-16) Two different kinds of temptation are going on in James 1. The first, the one we have already been looking at, is the testing that God allows in our lives to try and to prove us. Interestingly enough, the word that is …
Week 12: James and the Fatherless Day 1: The Blessings of Enduring (James 1:12) As we work our way through James 1 (previous posts herehttps://forbidthemnot.com/what-the-bible-says-about-the-fatherless/), we’ve reached the first heading for the “Action” column: Endure. We find that title in James 1:12. Although we have already glimpsed much of the needed action, here we find …
Week 11: James and the Fatherless Day 4: Not for the Faint of Heart (James 1:6-8) What does faith look like in an orphan ministry? The circumstances surrounding faith are rarely pretty. They are rarely simple. But somehow, they always seem to suddenly break out into something glorious, like a brilliant sunrise bursting into the …
Week 11: James and the Fatherless Day 3: Characteristics and Necessity of Faith, Part II – Faith and Commitment (James 1:6-8) As we have gone through this study of what the Bible says about the fatherless, we have seen on numerous occasions that faith is a necessary part of such ministry. Both the New Testament …
