Untwisting Scriptures and offering the Living Water, to help others (especially those who have been abused) experience the joy to be found in Jesus Christ
Some of this is time sensitive.
(This isn’t the Time Sensitive part. That’s the second one.)
After 12 years of blogging, TWELVE YEARS, I finally made a Facebook page associated with this website.
Yes, that took a really, really long time. Continue reading “Two Bits of Big News about Untwisting Scriptures”
A couple of years ago I wrote a series about “fear” (part one, part two, part three). But I knew there was much more for me to learn, and for me to share with others.
Not to mention that I want my next Untwisting Scriptures book to be (tentatively) subtitled Shut Your Mouth and Stuff Your Emotions.
Yesterday, a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I sat outside with my Bible and pondered “perfect love casts out fear” in 1 John (which I plan to blog about eventually). As I did, I thought about the typical ways believers are told to “cast out fear” and get on the right track with their “perfect love.”
All too often church leaders and other church people tell us that it’s by “choosing to do right,” our actions, our behavior, our internal decisions. Gritting our teeth and forcing ourselves. Will power. There may be some mention of the Holy Spirit, but it is often passing and incidental.
So then I remembered that twelve years ago a friend I was mentoring, “Melissa,” presented me with a related question. First she quoted a song from the old musical “The King and I.” Continue reading “Casting Out Fear by Whistling a Happy Tune”
Last week Emily Elizabeth Anderson of Thriving Forward interviewed me in light of the recent publication of my second Untwisting Scriptures book, which addresses patriarchy and authority.
Emily is one of the “Jane Does” who brought the lawsuit against Bill Gothard and later went public about it.
Our two perspectives together may have been especially helpful for some, because we interacted as two generations, since I am of the generation of Emily’s parents. Continue reading “Here’s the Link to that Zoom Interview with Me about Patriarchy”
A couple of things that are important to know today, Friday, February 26, 2021. Continue reading “Two Time-Sensitive Messages”
If you subscribe to my blog, then you got the advance notice that Book 2 of Untwisting Scriptures that were used to tie you up, gag you, and tangle your mind is coming out soon.
That’s because I sent out an email to all my subscribers, asking for pre-readers for the final chapter. I got a great response and I’ve received fantastic feedback.
More on that in a bit . . . Continue reading “Second Untwisting Scriptures Book Finally Coming Out!”
Friends, I speak at only about one conference a year (and the 2020 one was cancelled, of course), so this is a big deal for me, and I’m super excited.
This Retreat Conference, sponsored by Joy Forrest’s Called to Peace Ministries, is called “He Makes All Things New.” Continue reading “5 Reasons You Need to Come to the CTPM Retreat in May 2021”
Religion that pleases God the Father must be pure and spotless. You must help needy orphans and widows and not let this world make you evil. ~James 1:27
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Since 2017 I’ve been involved nearly full time with abuse victims and survivors, primarily using prayer ministry (based on the Immanuel Approach prayer ministry model developed by Christian psychiatrist Karl Lehman) to help them connect with Jesus and process their experiences, including traumatic memories. Continue reading “An Update on My One-on-One Ministry”
About 15 years ago I joined a certain group because everyone else was doing it and it seemed like the thing to do in order to be a better Christian, which of course I wanted very much.
The group followed a format that I found out later was typical, but it was all new to me at that time: We listened together to the respected speaker for the first hour, and then split up into small groups for the second hour.
This is where we would be transparent. Continue reading “That Time I Tried to Be Transparent in a Small Group . . .”
It may feel like voyeurism, reading about it, if you don’t know any of these people.
But as I’ve been saying for some time now, I can be pretty doggone certain that you do know or at least interact with a survivor of sex trafficking, even if you don’t think you do. Because they are all around you.
My primary work is with those who have been sex trafficked in the Christian world. And believe me, there are parallels.
One person or small group of people is/are the traffickers. They may be relatively obscure, as Epstein was.
Others, the wealthy and elites (in my experience, it’s primarily been the wealthy and elites in the Christian world) are the buyers who take advantage of the trafficker’s “services.” (Flying in to the trafficking location is not a problem for the Christian elite.)
There’s a lot to learn about how this all works by reading about the Jeffrey Epstein case. Continue reading “Why the Jeffrey Epstein Case Matters to Christians”
It’s supposed to be encouraging when we hear that God the Father sees His children through the filter of His Son Jesus Christ. I’ve seen Christians almost come to tears when they talk about how God the Father is wearing “blood-colored glasses” to look at us, seeing the righteousness of His Son instead of our sinfulness.
So, we are told, He sees His blood-bought children as holy instead of the unrighteous, filthy, utterly degraded, deceitfully wicked, totally sinful vile creatures we actually are. Continue reading “Here’s What’s Wrong With God Looking Through the “Filter” of Jesus to See His Children”