Freedom Is a Person, Not Just a Concept
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36 Do you ever find yourself yearning for freedom? What would it look like in your life to live without stress, fear, or worry? How would it feel to be free from the weight of your...
Breaking Free from Shame
Shame can stop us from building good friendships, doing what's right, having more joyful days, receiving God’s blessings, and much more. Do you carry shame from something in your past that holds you back from God’s best for your life? In Jesus’ time, women often went to the...
Freedom From Performance: You Don’t Have to Earn It
For most of my life, I lived with a scoreboard in my head. It was as if I was always being graded…constantly evaluated, compared, and measured. That mindset kept me striving for worth instead of resting in it. Life became less about living freely and faithfully and more about proving...
Christ Sets Us Free
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. —Galatians 5:1 While attending Moody Bible Institute, I felt God’s call to work with gang members in neighborhoods around Chicago...
The Illusion of Freedom: When “Do What You Want” Isn’t Really Freedom
They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity-for people are slaves to whatever has mastered them. —2 Peter 2:19 (NIV) My sprint toward freedom began when I was nineteen. I was ready to explore, escape, and be free from my childhood. Growing up in the nineties...
Following Jesus
And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.—Luke 14:27 (NIV) About three years ago, I went to a surgical center for a precautionary exam and walked out with the word precancerous linked to my name. It was so easy to let fear take control in that moment, but...
Master Class with Jesus
My mom’s friend, Winsome, loved hosting large, glamorous events in the Jamaican community. My mom and Winsome had lived in the same country town in Jamaica and reconnected in Florida after many years of living apart. Winsome was like an aunt to me. I always got so excited when she would...
Stuck of Stepping Forward
I didn’t learn to ride a bike as a kid.There, I said it. And as I got older, that fact got more and more embarrassing. It started as a simple gap in my childhood…no one around to teach me, no one really pushing me to try. But over time, that little thing turned into fear. A shame I...
Showing Up When You Don’t Feel It
The silence between us felt heavier than ever. My husband was sleeping on the couch, and I was sleeping in our bedroom. After seven years of marriage, we believed our marriage was over. We were exhausted, hurt, and tired of trying to fix a marriage that seemed beyond repair. As I sat in the...
You Don’t Drift into Relationship
Exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. —1 Timothy 4:7–8 (NKJV)Montgomery Center, Vermont, has no high school, no gym, and no...