How the Father Heals Shame. When Jesus instructs His followers to boldly pray “Our Father,” what kind of Father was He thinking of? What image of Father did Jesus want to communicate? If Jesus wanted His description of the Father to match up with His experience of the Father, wouldn’t it help us if Jesus …
Shame Not: Love One Another. “This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. By this all will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 15:12-13; 13:34-35). a. We are inescapably …
Shame Not: Be Kind to One Another. “The fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23. “Beloved children, our love can’t be an abstract theory we only talk about, but a way of life demonstrated through our loving deeds. We know that truth lives within us because we demonstrate …
Shame Not: Build Up One Another. “Edify one another, just as you have already been doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Edify: to build up a person or a community; to strengthen; to empower; to affirm certain qualities; to help someone or a group to grow, to reach maturity; to construct a building, an edifice, of faith and character …
Shame Not: Honor One Another. “Take delight in honoring each other.” (Romans 12:10, NLT). Honor: show deference to; to prefer over one’s self; to highly esteem; to greatly respect; to revere; to focus on the importance of another. a. Honoring someone goes beyond mere respect. To honor another person is to revere that person because that person …
Shame Not: Words Matter. “If we are able to bridle the words we say, we are powerful enough to control ourselves in every way, and that means our character is mature and fully developed.” (James 3:2, Passion Translation). Small things can wield amazing power. If you want to guide a huge horse, all it takes is …
The Shame of Christ. “Answer me, Lord, for your grace is good; in your great mercy, turn to me. You know I am insulted, shamed and disgraced; before you stand all my foes. Insults have broken my heart to the point that I could die. I hoped that someone would show me compassion, but nobody …
Healing the Shamed: A Prostitute. “Then Jesus turned to the woman and said to Simon, ‘Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet …
Biblical Hope for Those Who Are Shamed. “All you who hope in the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage, for with the Lord there is lovingkindness, and with Him is abundant redemption. God has a thousand ways to set us free. This hope will not let us down or put us to …
Rolled Away – Joshua 5 Sometimes an old children’s Sunday School chorus says it best. Here’s one from back in the day: “Rolled away, rolled away, rolled away. Every burden in my heart rolled away.” (2x). Please keep this thought in mind as I move onward here. Every burden in your heart. Every weight that …