by Karen Kinnaird | Feb 28, 2018
“Perhaps some detours aren’t detours at all. Perhaps they are actually the path. The picture. The plan. And, perhaps most unexpectedly, they can be perfect.” Katherine Wolf
April 21 may be an ordinary day for most people, but for Katherine and Jay Wolf it is a day to celebrate her life, the anniversary of the day Katherine nearly died of a massive brainstem stroke. This year, on April 20-21, 2018 she will spend the event’s 10-year anniversary at Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center, near Davis, Okla., as one of the keynote speakers for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma’s Women’s Retreat. The Wolfs story can be read in the unique and powerful book Hope Heals: A True Story of Overwhelming Loss and an Overcoming Love.
Hope Heals, published in 2016 by Zondervan, is the story of the Wolf family’s arduous and achingly slow eight-year journey surrounding Katherine’s catastrophic brainstem stroke, survival and recovery. The book is written as a duet, a pairing of talented writings from both Katherine and Jay’s perspectives. The Wolfs want people to know they are not alone in their pain. This is a book for the suffering, the disappointed and the one whose life turned out completely different than what was expected. It’s for the one looking for hope.
It began as a fairy tale life in California. The Wolfs were both headed toward promising careers. Katherine, a 26-year-old model in the entertainment industry, and Jay, on his way to taking the bar exam for a career in law, had bright futures. They had a 6-month-old baby and were deeply involved in their church community.
Their tragedy resulted in Katherine spending 40 days on life support and two years in full-time brain recovery. The result was a severely disabled body including the removal of 60 percent of her cerebellum.
The book includes a detailed account of the Wolfs’ story while getting a glimpse into their understanding of suffering. Why does God allow misfortune? What is our hope truly in? How does one rely on and trust God?
With grit, determination and deep devotion to each other, they chose to live life with a renewed purpose. Katherine wrote, “Affliction has led to a heartbreaking but beautiful deepening in me. I have learned to embrace the suffering. I have learned to not push back but to lean in hard when it hurts the most and press on. Pain has been an instructor, teaching me deeper truths about myself and God and bringing me closer to Christ in a way I never was before this happened.”
Ultimately, the Wolfs find the key to their survival: hope. Katherine summarized, “There is something profound about hope, something so meaningful when you cling to what is beyond anything you know and understand. When that happens deep in your head and your heart, something shifts. Hope heals.”
Jay’s commitment to meeting the physical and emotional needs of his disabled wife over the long haul is inspiring. Jay wrote, “No matter the origin of the suffering, God’s presence remains the same. He finds us in our hurts if we want to be found. His power to filter the worst that life has to offer, with goodness remaining, is our great hope.”
The Wolfs share that if hope is rooted in an outcome, then expectations will crush us. In redefining many areas of their lives, they have come to the conclusion that hope is rooted in God.
Today, the Wolfs have a ministry to the hurting and encourage people to celebrate their lives, even if it looks different from the one that was expected. For more information go to www.hopeheals.com.
by Amy Spear | Feb 14, 2018
There are those moments while reading God’s word, when certain words jump off the pages and hit you in the heart like an arrow splintering through a bullseye. Sometimes these words are so simple, maybe even “filler” words that you never even think twice about.
But, then, you read them again, and the Spirit floods your soul with new insight. I had one of those moments the other morning while reading 1 John 1:4:
“We write this to make our joy complete.”
Now I know, it seems to be nothing of theological value, but let’s think a bit deeper.
You see, God has called me to write. I don’t have a big following. I’m not the best writer. I sometimes don’t even want to do it. But the bottom line is, He said “Write,” so here I am.
He didn’t leave me with just a command to perform a task though. God placed the message in my heart that He wanted me to write, and if I don’t get it out, my soul might burst open, or worse yet, shrivel up and die! That seems a little dramatic I know, but when God calls us to do something, He places a passion, a longing, an indescribable yearning to accomplish that task within our very being that starts off as a small flame then rages like an inferno the more and more you fuel it.
“…to make our joy complete.”
When I write, or speak or teach a lesson, God fills my heart with gratitude and joy. My passion is to teach His word in any way I can. When I do what God has created me to do, there is an indescribable joy that fills my heart. It’s like God is smiling from the inside and telling me He is proud I was obedient to His call.
Again, it’s not that I am a rock star or even great at anything God has called me too. In fact, it’s not about me or my abilities at all. I am simply being obedient to what He has asked of me.
Simple obedience can bring a spark of joy and blessing back to your soul.
What “makes your joy complete”? What burning passion has He placed within your soul? Most of the time it is that one thing that scares you to death to accomplish, but you can’t get it out of your mind. Are you actively obeying His call? Or have you put it aside to tend to the more urgent and pressing things in life?
It is so easy to become distracted by those things that need our immediate attention. We must push back against the “urgent” and press into the thing that God has called us to, the thing that He created us for.
When you do, your joy will return; your joy will be made complete; and blessings will once again flood your soul.
Share with me! What is your passion? What stops you from pursuing your calling from God? How does it make you feel when you are obeying His call on your life?
by Angela Sanders | Feb 12, 2018
A story shook me to the core this morning.
Hezekiah. Heard of him? He was one of the godliest kings in Jewish history.
Anyway, God showed Hezekiah favor and rescued Jerusalem from a blood-thirsty bully, the king of Assyria, who had already conquered 46 Jewish cities. Not only did God deliver Jerusalem, but he annihilated the Assyrians, killing 185,000 of them in their sleep! The Israelite soldiers didn’t even have to get their hands dirty. The angel of the Lord did it for them.
Why? Hezekiah had pleaded with God to prove to the Assyrians He was not just another man-made god easily conquered. Sure, Hezekiah and his people got something out of it, too, but Hezekiah’s request revealed a sincere desire to see God glorified, a motive God could really get behind.
Later, Hezekiah got sick and almost died. Again, he pleaded with God for a longer life. His argument? He had honored and obeyed God all his life. This being the kind of behavior God could reward while glorifying Himself, he decided to let Hezekiah live for 15 more years.
Grace upon grace.
Healthy and wealthy once again, Hezekiah relaxed and enjoyed the abundant blessings of God. Comfortable, he grew lax and failed to exercise the same kind of discernment and wisdom he’d shown during hard times. When visitors from Babylon came knocking, he didn’t question why, but invited them in and showed them EVERYTHING in the kingdom, whetting their appetite.
Hezekiah’s foolishness would later cost his people. You see, carelessness, arrogance, and poor stewardship are things God just can’t get behind. They don’t reflect His character or inspire proper respect for His sovereignty, wisdom, and power.
Isaiah, God’s messenger, foretold the consequences of Hezekiah’s actions. Somewhere down the road, the Babylonians would carry off everything Hezekiah had shown them in his milk-drunk stupor. Everything. Even worse, the Babylonians would carry off his own descendants, castrate them, and use them as slaves in the Babylonian palace!
I must admit I cringed when I read that, deep down, where mothers ache when their babies get hurt. I got sick to my stomach and my eyes stung.
Apparently, the news did not have the same effect on Hezekiah. In fact, he called the Lord’s judgment “good.”
Um, excuse me?!?
Now, I’m sure one part of Hezekiah was just recognizing God’s wisdom and sovereignty like he always had before. Of course the judgment was “good.” A good God had handed it down. But the other part of him was just glad he wouldn’t have to live through it (Isaiah 39:8).
Bottom line? Hezekiah was okay with his descendants’ having to endure the horrific consequences of his actions as long as he didn’t have to experience it himself or watch.
He didn’t pull out the sackcloth and ashes. He didn’t repent. He didn’t even ask!
King Hezekiah just gave up.
Oh, he wouldn’t have had a leg to stand on, of course, and God would, in no way, have been obligated to do as Hezekiah asked, but he could have at least tried! He could have admitted fault and doubled-down on his commitment to reflect God’s character and be a good steward with all God had given him. He could have asked God reveal His mercy and grace by sparing Judah the hardship foretold, thereby glorifying Himself, but he didn’t.
The result? Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, became one of the worst kings in Jewish history, turning his back on God and reinstating the wicked religious practices of his grandfather—a God-fearing parent’s worst nightmare—and everything Isaiah foretold came true under Nebuchadnezzar.
I just don’t get it.
How could a godly man like Hezekiah not show more remorse for his carelessness, arrogance, and poor stewardship? How could he not scramble to turn things back around once he knew he’d messed up? How could he experience personal relief knowing his actions would someday cause others grief? How could he not do a better job of raising his children in fear and admonition of God after years of experiencing God’s blessing and favor? How does a once-passionate servant of God grow lazy and apathetic?
You know, I say I don’t get it, but maybe I do, on some level anyway.
Maybe you do, too.
Now, I don’t feel the need to spill my guts here—details are superfluous in matters of motive—and I wouldn’t, in a million years, ask you to spill yours, but I think we’d all do well to take this cautionary tale to heart and get honest with ourselves and with God.
While we may not be able to undo damage already done or hold back the consequences of past actions, we can start over. We can do better.
The Bible says, “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
The truth is none of us have a leg to stand on before holy God, but we do have Jesus, a mediator who understands what it’s like to be us (Heb. 4:15). Through His obedient death and resurrection, we have forgiveness for sin, past, present, and future (1 Pet. 3:18); eternal life by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8); and the ability to live for God’s glory by the supernatural power of His Holy Spirit, no matter what we have or haven’t done to this point (Phil. 2:13).
It may be too late for Hezekiah, but it’s not too late for us! All we have to do is ask (Rom. 10:9-10, Gal. 4:6).
by Angela Sanders | Feb 6, 2018
Why are some Christians mean?
Well, it could be that the Christian in question really isn’t one. Maybe they had some kind of spiritual experience or said some words and now believe they belong to the family of God, but never truly surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ. If so, His Holy Spirit never came to live in their heart. Their desires are still their own. Their motivations are still their own. Their actions are still their own. Not God’s. Please don’t let them ruin your opinion of the One Whose name they’ve hijacked.
If they truly are a Christian, meaning they’ve accepted God’s forgiveness made possible through Jesus’ death and resurrection and been saved from the consequences of sin by surrendering their lives to Him, it could be they’re just out of practice.
Let me explain.
I have athletic ability. It’s genetic. When I work out, my muscles “remember” what to do and begin to take on the desired shape quickly. When I count calories and get enough sleep, I lose weight. When I watch someone execute a skill, I can do a decent imitation of them. When I train, I improve at that skill.
You’d never know it, though, if were you to observe me. At the moment, my muscle tone is lacking. I’m heavier than I was a year ago, and I’m not currently excelling at any particular skill. Why? I’m not working at it.
The mean Christian you know may be in the same boat. They’ve been reborn and so have the Holy Spirit inside them as a result of their God-given faith (2 Cor. 5:17, Gal. 4:5-6). He’s ready, willing, and able to help them discern the will of the Father and execute it, but they aren’t cooperating with Him. They’re not applying themselves, so they aren’t growing. As a result, they still act on their own desires and let selfish motives drive them sometimes. More often than not, they are a poor representation of the One they represent. Please don’t let them ruin your opinion of their Father.
They may be rebelling—if so, God will take them in hand presently (Heb. 12:3-11)—but it’s more likely they believe they are doing and/or saying the right thing. See, sometimes, my brothers and sisters and I do a poor job of training up the younger ones and teaching them what they need to know. As a result, they don’t practice submission to the Holy Spirit. They don’t know they need to, so they run ahead, falsely assuming that their identity as a child of God automatically makes them correct or gives them the right to do and say what they please. That’s on us. I beg you to overlook their behavior just as I would ask you to overlook the behavior of any other toddler who behaved inappropriately for lack of instruction.
Understand, Christians are sanctified, or set apart for God, the moment we give our lives to Jesus Christ, but our transformation into His image takes a lifetime, the rate of that transformation contingent on the consistency of our cooperation. Rather than hold a grudge against those who don’t know yet how to be, I hope you’ll become a part of the solution, giving God complete control of your life so you can show them how it’s done.
However, it could also be that what you’re interpreting as meanness really isn’t. Maybe the Christian in question is just passing along the truth of God’s Word, and it’s making you uncomfortable. If so, don’t be upset. Be glad! God, the Creator of the Universe, the Great I Am, is talking to you! That’s a blessing no matter how it makes you feel in the moment because it means He’s giving you an opportunity to draw closer to Him, where you’ll find joy that transcends circumstance and peace that surpasses human understanding.
Maybe you’ve never put your faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection for salvation from the consequences of sin by surrendering your life to Jesus. If this is true, I hope you will so the discomfort will pass. Maybe you’re a child of God, but you’re operating independently of Him at the moment, causing yourself and others unnecessary grief. If so, I hope you’ll confess that sin and fall back in line with the Father’s will for your life. Your actions are causing more damage than you probably realize.
Granted, some Christians are careless, speaking the truth of God’s Word like they’re supposed to, but lacing it with disdain, self-righteousness, and the like, thereby wounding those they’re supposed to help heal and poisoning their opinion of the Father. If this has happened to you, I apologize. Again, I hope you can dismiss the toddler at your heels yapping, poking, and showing out while the Father, compassionate and full of grace, is trying to speak to you. He will correct them in due time, I assure you.
In a perfect world, the words mean and Christian wouldn’t ever be spoken together. There’d be no reason. But this isn’t a perfect world, and none of us, Christian or non-Christian, is perfect. Not yet (Phil. 1:6). Our flesh gets in the way. The only thing that sets Christians apart from non-Christians is the hope we have in Jesus Christ, confident assurance that His death and resurrection were enough to spare us the consequences of sin we so obviously deserve and secure our place in God’s Kingdom now and forever if only we put our faith and trust in Him.
Whatever your experience with us, please don’t stay angry. Instead, once the initial sting has subsided, I hope you’ll be encouraged by our behavior. After all, if God loves, accepts, and forgives sinners like us, He loves and will accept and forgive you, too. If you do a better job, then, of cooperating with His Holy Spirit than we have, you’ll run spiritual circles around the rest of us, and we’ll soon look to you as an example of sincere faith and love.
by Hannah Hanzel | Jan 24, 2018
There is a feeling of heaviness and weighted misery that sweeps over Christ-followers after we have willfully sinned against God. The exact sin does not matter, as long as it’s sin. Sin is sin. But what about that feeling? Sometimes it’s in the pit of our stomachs, and sometimes it’s in the depths of our minds. No matter the location, it would be foolish of us to suppress it and believe we can overcome it alone. But is this feeling of God (conviction) or is it of the enemy (condemnation)?
After we commit a sin against God and the feeling sweeps over us, we repent. We ask God to forgive us and plead for Him to humble our selfish hearts. We always come back to repentance because the Spirit of God lives in us (Rom. 8:9). The Spirit begins working from the moment we sin to the moment we repent as it wrestles with our flesh in the limited space of our hearts. The one we’ve given the most leeway wins. Repentance may not take place until 12 seconds prior to the sin or until 12 years after. Nonetheless, there is that feeling.
We must learn to discern between condemnation and conviction for sin. When we appreciate one and not the other, or worse, we blur the two together, we miss three things: the Spirit’s place, God’s grace, and Christ’s plan.
We see the Spirit’s place in conviction in John 16:7-11 just before Christ’s ascension. He says the Spirit’s place is to convict, first of sin, then of righteousness, and lastly of judgment. When we mistake guilt or condemnation for conviction, or vise versa, we misplace the Spirit Himself.
We see God’s grace in conviction in Joel 2:13. Joel writes, “…Return to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and He relents from sending disaster.” A common misconception of God is that He is a vicious judge, waiting on the edge of His seat for a chance to slap your hand. Joel says quite the opposite in this passage. The feeling of conviction and the opportunity to repent when we are in the wrong against God is one of His greatest gifts of grace.
Lastly, we see Christ’s plan in conviction in Psalm 38 as David cries out to the Lord. I often try to imagine what the Holy Trinity talked about or how they behaved when David would call to them. Sometimes I picture them dancing and singing as David strums away on his harp praising them. In Psalm 38, however, I picture God holding David’s hand as David says “For my iniquities have flooded over my head; they are a burden too heavy for me to bear”. In this scene I see the Holy Spirit and Jesus packing their bags for Earth and reviewing the plan for redemption.
Yes, conviction is key in our lives, and yet we too often carry condemnation with us. But how can we determine between the two? Let us examine them now.
First, condemnation is violent. The enemy flings the committed sin in your face and rubs it into your already worn heart. Phrases pop into your head like, “You’re so stupid, God is ashamed of you.” Condemnation distorts God’s Word. We begin seeing His promises and mercies as obligatory and unsatisfactory. Along with that come ideas such as, “God will never forgive you”. Condemnation is selfish. It focuses on our glory being shot down and our own abilities, or lack of abilities. We think, “If only I had tried harder.”
And what of conviction? Oh that sweet, sinking feeling when we realize our wrong! Oh that sound of Christ’s dripping blood when we become aware of our offense. Believer, be grateful for God’s conviction. When seen through the eyes of Scripture, conviction is our plumb line. But what is it, you may ask?
It is the weighted misery.
Conviction is healing. Our Savior sees our sin in the moment it is committed and compels His Spirit to cleanse us of it. We feel remorse for ever having offended our King, and soon we begin to heal from our disobedience.
Conviction is progressive but does not drag on. C.S. Lewis said, “Mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin. The guilt is covered not by time but by repentance and the blood of Christ.” So we see that it may take time to heal from our sin, but it takes repentance and Christ’s blood (which is already provided) to be forgiven of the sin.
Lastly, conviction is of Christ and brings life. Rom. 8:1 confidently states that there is “now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. Rather, Christ utilizes His Spirit in us to enable a sort of grief over our sin. In 2 Cor. 7:9-10, Paul says, “I now rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed… Godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.”
We strive to claim purity and abstain from sin, but as we are still in the flesh, we also strive towards repentance daily. As we run this race together, let us “not be conformed to the desires of our former ignorance” (1 Pet. 1:14). We cling to conviction and deny condemnation. With hearts of humility, let us praise God for this weighted misery that quickly turns to triumphant gratitude!
by Ryan Smith | Jan 23, 2018
Everyone is living for a kingdom and a king.
We all have visions of an existence for ourselves and others that describe the way things should be and who should oversee this reality. We fight for, and invest in, those things that encapsulate that vision.
Whether measured in money, power, justice, equality or any number of means, we all secure our hopes to a kingdom that represents the greatest utopia we could imagine. We celebrate it. We yearn for it. We fight for it.
As Christians, we claim to be citizens of a Kingdom both already and not yet fully realized. In that case, our lives should display a picture of Christ’s Kingdom as we yearn and wait while exiled from our eternal home. We should celebrate, yearn for and fight for it.
But author and philosopher James K.A. Smith says, “While being human means we can’t not love something ultimate – some version of the kingdom – it doesn’t mean we necessarily love the right things, or the true King. God has created us for himself and our hearts are designed to find their end in him, yet many spend their days restlessly craving rival gods, frenetically pursuing rival kingdoms.”
So how do we know if we are pursuing rival kingdoms – even in the name of the one true King?
Try this: list a few things that you love. Not just like you love Braum’s ice cream or the Thunder, but what you truly desire, sacrifice for, invest yourself in; what pulls at your soul, what you celebrate, what you love.
Then follow that love to where it naturally finds its end. What do you discover?
Often we discover our loves follow this pattern:
I love _______ because it ___________ me.
I love social media because it entertains me.
I love my spouse because they care for me.
I love my friends because they bring happiness to me.
I love my church because the music and preaching are pleasing to me.
In these scenarios, we see our loves are serving what is displayed as our ultimate end – ourselves. The end of our desires is a kingdom of our preference and choosing. It is our kingdom, and we are the kings.
But for the Christian truly living for the Kingdom of God, all our loves should find their end in the Kingdom of God. To be a Christian, in fact, is to surrender ourselves to a true King and His Kingdom.
Therefore our loves should follow this pattern:
I love __________ because it __________________ the kingdom of God.
I love the Bible because it tells of the kingdom of God.
I love the path of righteousness because it is the pathway to the kingdom of God.
I love songs of truth because they also echo and fill the kingdom of God.
I love suffering because it detaches me from this world and reminds me to keep my eyes on my home in the true kingdom of God.
I love the local church because it is a microcosm of the kingdom of God.
I love marriage because it is a reflection of the King and his people in the kingdom of God.
Like a mountain climber who tethers his rope to the most solid object he can find, we also tether the cables of our heart to that which we believe is most able to hold our very selves. We trust it. It becomes our hope.
Yet only one kingdom will be fully realized after all others are burned in the refining fire of time and it won’t be mine.
For each of us, it is important that we take time to consider the trajectories of our hearts. These trajectories will be evidenced by the investment of our time, thought life, energy, resources and habits.
Have you laid down your desire for any kingdom but God’s? Do you live for a kingdom where God is King or you are king? Would you be willing to consider your loves and discern what kingdom they are tethered to?
Matt. 6:10 – “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
2 Peter 1:10-11 – “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”