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Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Pentecost Church Worksheets
By Anna Wyss Ready for this weekend? We’re getting there, too! Here’s some church sheets for your littles for this Sunday’s service. Have a great day! DSDO-SeriesB-25thSundayAfterPentecost DSDM-SeriesB-25th Sunday After Pentecost
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When the Going Gets Tough
By Laura Vandercook Some seasons or days as mother are easier than others. We can keep the house relatively clean. We can get supper on the table most days of the week. We can care for our family, and there aren’t huge problems looming. Some seasons are not as lovely. My grandfather used to say, “Life’s not all fried chicken and ice cream.” He was right. Some seasons your husband looses his job, and he has to get a temp job in a nearby city. You only get to see him for a few hours a week. Maybe one of your kids gets a chronic illness. Maybe you just had…
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Review of Soldier On and Giveaway
By Bethany Kilcrease Ladies, if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to read Christian fiction featuring both an implied steamy sex scene and Luther’s Small Catechism all within the first chapter, then wonder no more! Sisters of Katie Luther blogger Vanessa Rasanen makes her authorial debut with Soldier On, which might be said to fall within the contemporary Christian military genre if such a category exists. Prior to late August 2018, I had never read anything approaching a contemporary Christian novel. Moreover, while I do have some experience in the Christianity department, my experience with military deployment is nonexistent. Wouldn’t reading this book be like a life-long…
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Strength in Weakness?
By Elizabeth Ahlman While we were living in Leipzig, Germany, my family and I had several opportunities to visit Lutherstadt Wittenberg. In the courtyard of the Black Cloister is one of my favorite statues. It’s Katie Luther, full skirts swishing out, arms pumping, looking as if she was striding purposefully across that courtyard. If anything depicts a womanly strength, it’s that statue. Katie looks all business, as if ready to take on anything — as if ready to go to battle on her own little homefront (or not so little, as the Black Cloister was actually huge). Historians and perhaps lore tell us that Katie was strong and bold –…
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Singleness and Vocation and Comfort
By Keri Wolfmueller Dear Sisters, I have a question that I hope you can help me with. I know that marriage is a good gift from God, and so are children. But what does that mean for those of us who haven’t gotten married yet and might not? Hi Sister! Thanks for trusting us with your question, that’s a special place to be. First, know you will be in our prayers. We will pray that God will grant you His comfort, peace, joy, wisdom, and contentment with whatever your future may hold. I feel like everything I’m going to say you know. You are a student of the Scriptures. So,…
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Review on Demystifying the Proverbs 31 Woman
By Bethany Kilcrease Perhaps it’s just me, but I’ve always found the book of Proverbs a little baffling. Sure, I know it’s about Christ. I know that Christ is Wisdom incarnate (1 Cor. 1:30). On this basis I can work through the first nine chapters, in which Lady Wisdom contrasts herself to Dame Folly. Christ (Wisdom) is the way to life. Rejecting Him leads only to Folly and death. In chapter 8, Solomon gives an especially compelling picture of the pre-incarnate Christ calling out to foolish sinners in the persona of Lady Wisdom. But then what do we make of chapters ten through thirty-one? Despite having glanced at various commentaries,…
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Comfort in Private Confession
By Vanessa Rasanen That drive to church might have been the hardest I had ever made — and I’ve made plenty of white-knuckled, stress-filled, holy-moly-please-be-quiet-or-I’m-going-to-lose-it Sunday morning drives with my four littles. That particular weekday afternoon, though, I was headed to our near-empty church to meet with my pastor in the sanctuary for private confession and absolution. While I’ve often encouraged friends to seek this out for themselves, and I have openly confessed this pastoral service to be a blessed gift, truth is I was downright scared to do it myself. I had actually been considering making it a regular practice. After all, there’s no reason you need to have…
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When Christian Love Needs to be Tough
By Vanessa Rasanen There is much about this life in faith that seems confusing to those who live outside it. This shouldn’t shock us, of course, since God tells us quite clearly that His word is folly to those who don’t believe. They won’t understand why we give so much of our income to the church — even before putting any into our own savings. They don’t get why we wake up early every Sunday to get to church even when there’s a foot of snow outside. And they certainly cannot fathom why we would dare to share something as personal as our faith with those who have no interest…
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Never Done
By Vanessa Rasanen It is currently 4:30am. I have been up since 2:45 when our youngest woke up and refused to go back to sleep. To be fair, my husband initially got up with him at 2 (!) and tried to settle him back down, but as he has a 12 hour shift at the ER today, it seemed best that I tag him out and let him head back to bed. For 45 minutes I rocked and cuddled our little man before finally giving up, brewing some coffee, and settling onto the couch to let him play. And in my head I’m replaying the words I said to friends…
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When You’re Walking in Doubt
By Holly Scheer Sometimes life is really hard. Life might stink because of a lot of big, scary things. Or, maybe it’s a cascade of small things that together start to become overwhelming. Burnt toast and spilled coffee aren’t worth tears on their own, but when you’re looking for a tiny moment of peace in your day, the tiniest of disappointments can be the breaking point. When it seems like everything is going wrong, and life is just disappointing and scary, doubt can be a constant and troubling companion. What does it mean for the Christian when you’re walking in doubt, and when you can’t seem to shake the fear…
