“One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner." And Jesus answering said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." And he answered, "Say it, Teacher." "A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt." And he said to him, "You have judged rightly." Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little." And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this, who even forgives sins?" And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."” ‭‭Luke‬ ‭7:36-50‬ ‭ESV‬‬

She had heard He would be at Simon’s house. I can imagine her walking to the house, grief welling up, trying to find words that could carry the weight of her heart. And yet, standing at Jesus’ feet, any words she had found fell away with the tears that rolled from her cheeks. Tears mixed with the dust that still clung to His feet as He reclined at the table. A table to which she was uninvited. 

A lack of invitation did not hinder her. She needed to see Jesus. No one had to remind her she was a sinner. She knew it, and the knowledge ached beneath her skin. 

With a broken heart, the sinful woman knelt at Jesus’ feet in an unfettered act of worship and repentance. With her hair unbound, she wiped away the many tears that had fallen from her face to His feet. In reverence, she kissed them and anointed them with precious oil from a newly broken jar. With a posture of humility and desperation, she sought forgiveness for the sinfulness that had taken the place of her name. 

Every time I encounter the story of this unnamed woman, my heart breaks. This is a woman who realized the gravity of her sin, but in seeing the recognition of her own deep need of forgiveness, I am confronted by mine. We share a brokenness. The aching knowledge of my messes and terrible choices is thick. I have hurt others for my own gain, carried selfishness veiled with kind actions, and spoken gossip where encouragement belonged. I am in desperate need of mercy and forgiveness. Yet in this place of desperation, hope is not extinguished. No, it is given new life. Because of Jesus. 

Jesus dares to love with ferocity and mercy. He offered up His very life to make right all my wrongs - past, present, and future. He paid what I never could, and I know forgiveness because of Him. And in knowing I have been forgiven, how do I now love? The perspective that informs how I see my failings informs how greatly I love. As Jesus tells Simon, “But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” If I undervalue the cost of forgiveness, I love out of poverty. But if I see the price of forgiveness as dear, I love out of abundance. 

My sisters, what if we dared to seek Jesus with abandon as this forgiven woman did? What would our lives look like? What knowledge would our hearts hold? He awaits us with tenderness, with freedom, with peace.

Are we equally desperate to adore and celebrate the One who has intervened on our behalf and paid what we could not, who took on skin to save us? If not, what is holding us back?

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Robin Zastrow wants to live in a world where coffee never gets cold and kindness abounds. When she's not discovering the wonders of construction paper and cardboard tubes with her two little ones, you can find her sneaking in another few pages of a book or jotting down bits of writing on scraps of paper.

One of her favorite Scriptures is:“Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.” Psalm 33:20-22 ESV

When I say the word Song of Solomon, what comes to mind? If you are churched at all, perhaps you know it as the sex book of the Bible. Just me? I’ve thought of it as a little embarrassing to read maybe, and awkward to talk about in the church. My hypothesis is that it is easier to laugh off our discomfort about it than to fully investigate it. It is a recorded conversation between lovers in the Bible, and we are supposed to read the Bible,but I still feel like I’m witnessing something maybe I shouldn’t be. Isn’t it too intimate or personal? 

God is very purposeful with what He includes in Scripture. Paul writes this to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” In light of this verse, Song of Solomon is not just a few risque conversations between lovers; this book is breathed out by God for our benefit. So we should not only read the book, but dive in deep. And for the purpose of this post, explore who this nameless female lover and her words which take up half the book! 

*I’d encourage you to read the book in its entirety before continuing in this post.
It is 8 chapters, so it won’t take you long!*

Song of Solomon has many different interpretations. Some think it is all an allegory showcasing the love of God to His people. Some believe the book to be an anthology of sorts, a compilation of love poems or songs. Two more interpretations hold the thought that it is a story of love between a shepherdess and either a shepherd or King Solomon. 

What is not so debated, however, is the description of the “she” character in the book. The ESV Bible introduction states that she is “perhaps the most clearly drawn female character in the Bible.” 

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. Song of Solomon 2:7

So, who is she? A shepherdess, a country girl, a Shulammite woman, most likely from the village of Shunmen, a part of the northern kingdom. She is a lover. We would call her head over heels in love, but at the same time, she fights for a pure union with her lover. She is eager to marry this man, and to make love to him, but she wants to do this thing right (aka “do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases” Song of Solomon 2:7.) She tells others about her beloved, speaks of her admiration for him, and her desire for him. She is excited to give herself to him. (My beloved is mine, and I am his. Song of Solomon 2:16.) 

She not only gives this love, but receives it, as exemplified by the back and forth nature of the exchanges. Their love is public, clear for all to see. She states “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” (Song of Solomon 2:4) The word for banner here is only used once elsewhere in Scripture, in Numbers 2:2, as something flown to share the identity of an army in camps and battles. Their love, therefore, is declared and becomes a part of their identity and declares it to their enemies.

So we do not know the name of this shepherdess, but we do know her identity was rooted in love. As our identity can also be!

As I’ve been listening to the most recent series of the Dayton Women in the Word podcast, I was struck by how Kalie McDonald described the Gospel as the greatest love story. She quoted one of my favorite passages, Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” She described herself going on dates with God and described him as her husband, a way we can all describe Jesus! It delights me to witness her public passion for the greatest love of her life.

For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. Isaiah 54:5

Our marriage with the Lord is a refrain throughout the entirety of Scripture. God describes Himself as our Husband (Isaiah 54:5,) He calls the church His bride (Ephesians 5:25,) and He wants us to own and act upon our identity as His beloved (1 John 4:7-12.) I remember all we learned in our Hosea summer study, about how God relentlessly pursues us, and restores us from us from adulterous sinner to His beloved bride. Like the shepherdess, we too will be attending a wedding banquet with our bridegroom, the wedding feast of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9.) 

In the garden, Adam and Even walked in this perfect love. They were naked and felt no shame (Gen 2:25.) I’ve heard it said that in Christ, we are “fully known and fully loved.” They were living with the Lord and flourishing under his good plan for this earth. When they sinned, their intimacy with God was wrecked, and their intimacy with each other as well. 

In Song of Solomon, I see a woman described with delight. I see two lovers obeying God, living according to His boundaries for sex and freely enjoying each other within them. I see no shame described. They are flourishing and free. Although interpretations differ on this specific book, we do know that marriage is the way God wants us to understand His relationship with us. As I read about the shepherdess in Song of Solomon, I feel an invitation to accept (without blushing!) God’s delight in me, His Bride. I feel the invitation to walk in the identity of love He has placed on my life and to feast with Him at the table. I want to obey Him to keep our marriage pure because I made a covenant to Him, and He to me. 

How would you describe Jesus if you were the shepherdess, describing her lover? What would you say? Write? We often annotate the attributes of God in our studies. Why not make it a love letter, and why not share it with others? I believe when we accept the love of Jesus, we won’t be able to help but brag on our Husband. It might seem too good to be true, but the reality is, it is TRUE. Others may think they are witnessing something too personal, but you will show them anyway because you want them to have intimacy with God like you do. 

And if you don’t know Jesus this way yet, it’s time to embrace the love He has for you. His desire is for you to be His. He is eagerly awaiting His bride, and we eagerly await Him.

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Jillian Vincent loves Jesus. She's a wife, a mother of boys, and a Dayton enthusiast. Jillian currently is a stay at home mama and spends nap times writing and discipling other women. She would (almost) die for an avocado, a cup of coffee made by her husband, a novel that makes her cry, and a bouquet of sunflowers.

What do you think of when you hear the word “confidence?” For me, I imagine a beautiful lady nailing a public speech with perfectly quaffed hair and a killer outfit being met with a standing ovation. Or, I imagine a ballerina bending and jumping in a tiny thigh-gap-exposing-tutu in front of a large live audience. Confidence to me has always been tied to looking good, performing well, and being adored by others.

As I read through 1 John, I see John writing about confidence, and WITH confidence, as He addresses his letter to God’s children. This confidence that John describes and exudes has nothing to do with the confidence that I’ve summed up in my own brain. It is not simply something we can muster up out of our own willpower, but it is gifted to us by our good Father. And it is not for our own glorification, but that of His. If I could sum up 1 John, it would be: God loved us and made Himself known to us through His Son Jesus, who saved us from our sins. Now, that breeds true confidence, and oodles of it.

God loved us and made Himself known to us through His Son Jesus, who saved us from our sins. Now, that breeds true confidence, and oodles of it.

John insists that we are God’s children. And in that station, we are born into an identity of confidence. Why? Because when you are secure in your position with God as your Father, not much scares you, whether in life or death.

He specifically writes about confidence four times in his first letter, starting in 2:28 where he writes, “And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we may have confidence and not shrink in shame at His coming.” This refers to when Jesus comes again, but the statement also encourages us to approach Him now. No longer do we have the stain of sin to separate us from our Father, as Jesus took that upon Himself. In order to have confidence in Christ, we can not be strangers with Him, so John encourages us to embrace our position as His child, with every intimacy that this relationship affords.

This intimacy will remove your past and present shame stemming from sin. The next time John specifically mentions confidence is in 3:21 when he writes, “Beloved if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.” When you are a child of God, you will hate your sin. The Holy Spirit will expose your sin to you and begin to change you. No longer will you live in condemnation (Romans 8:1), but you will have confidence to ask God to keep doing the good work of sanctification in you. You will see you are not as you should be, but praise God for this! You have hope that the Holy Spirit is making you like Jesus, and you are confident He will finish that good work in you. As Paul writes in Philippians 1:6 “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

We can also have confidence to approach Him boldly in prayer and know that He will hear us when we do. John writes in 1 John 5:14 “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.”

Not only can you be confident for the past, that you are forgiven, and for the present, that He is making you like Christ, but for the future as well. In 1 John 4:17, John writes “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so also are we in this world.” We are confident that when Jesus comes again, our Judge will find us blameless because when God sees us He sees Jesus. We can have confidence that Jesus and His salvation for us remains the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

John doesn’t just tell, he shows. He explicitly mentions confidence these four times, but in total, the book of 1 John says “know” 33 times. John is giving an account of what he knows for sure, and all because of WHO he knows for sure. John knows Jesus. And we know Jesus. Because of this knowledge, we can be confident….

In the love of the Father (1 John 3:1)
In His promises of eternal life (1 John 2:25)
In His truth (1 John 3:18-19)
In His testimony (1 John 5:6-12)
In the Holy Spirit’s teaching and in His anointing (1 John 2:27)
To practice righteousness (1 John 3:10)
To love the family of God, even if it requires sacrifice from us (1 John 3:16-18)
When we experience hatred from the world (1 John 3:13-15)
When we encounter antichrists (1 John 2:18-24)
That His victory is our victory (1 John 5:4)

There are probably several more confidences I have yet to discover from this rich book, but this I know: I am walking taller today than I am before I studied this book. Why? Because I am God’s child, and because I know Jesus.

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Jillian Vincent loves Jesus. She's a wife, mother of two boys and a Dayton enthusiast. Jillian currently is a stay at home mama and spends nap times writing and discipling other women. She would (almost) die for an avocado, a cup of coffee made by her husband, a novel that makes her cry, and a bouquet of sunflowers.

Fistfuls of silverware clatter to the floor with a clamor of youthful surprise. Eager to help, but underestimating the capacity of their little hands, my children have joined in the ritual of emptying the dishwasher. Some days it goes without incident. More often, the task is marked by a childish zeal that lands the forks and spoons near our feet before they end up returning to the silverware drawer.

It’s in considering the unfolding of such mundane acts, like children putting away dishes, that Paul came to mind. Paul served as a spiritual father to so many: guiding, correcting, and encouraging. He was a vibrant conduit for the message of God’s kingdom, God’s unrelenting grace, and the ultimate Lordship of Jesus. How many moments of youthful zeal did he witness yield unintended outcomes? How many opportunities did he have to offer guidance and reassurance to those young in their faith as they grew in maturity? What was it like to see that generation of God’s children grow up?

Often after children have grown, there comes a time when they are ready for greater independence. In Acts 20, there is such a time in Paul’s missionary journey. He summons the church elders from Ephesus to come and see him in Miletus. He reminds them of his mission to testify about the good news of God’s grace; to declare to Jews and Greeks alike, their need to turn to God and have faith in Christ alone. At this time, the Holy Spirit is compelling Paul on toward Jerusalem. Regardless of the cost, he refuses to resist the direction of the Spirit and the calling to testify of Christ.

He calls them to seek God and His Spirit to work in them and through them. He calls them to remember what Jesus has done…

Though he loves them dearly, Paul knows he will not see the Ephesian elders again and shares this reality with them. In the last face-to-face exhortation Paul extends to these church leaders, he calls them to cling to the truth of the gospel of God’s grace and to be carefully attentive to themselves and the church in which the Holy Spirit has made them overseers. Paul calls the church elders of Ephesus to a task they cannot complete in their own power. He calls them to seek God and His Spirit to work in them and through them. He calls them to remember what Jesus has done, what His death has accomplished, what His blood has redeemed.

So often I try to pick up as much as I think I can carry only to find that I am unable to do what I thought I could. Writing, mothering, homemaking, teaching; the list goes on and on of things I grab by the fistful to tuck into the rows of hours, days, and weeks that line my calendar. Like my children, I underestimate my own capacity. Though my body feels grown, I have much growing yet to do. My good intentions clatter to the floor, like silverware, as I have picked up too much with the excitement that accompanies possibility. In the face of that possibility, I am inclined to forget my greatest need: guidance from the Holy Spirit.

It is in the space of falling short, that I better understand the good news of grace and the redemption of Christ. I am not called to perfection or performance, but to reliance on the Spirit of grace. What I have been given to oversee and care for are not tasks, but people and hearts and souls. The reach of my words and attitudes carries farther than I realize. My mission is not one of accomplishing or cleaning or cooking, but of caring for, listening to, and mothering the people that intersect my days. My calling is love. In the midst of the day-to-day, my prayer has become:

“God, help me to dwell on the reality of Your grace. Jesus, keep me mindful of what Your incarnation and death has meant for the world. Spirit, teach me how to love and speak and act out of Your abundance.”

Lord, may we be women who love well, who seek to fill our hands with Your good news of grace, that we may share it readily. May we be women who listen, who incline our hearts to your Holy Spirit and His promptings, that we may walk in obedience to You and the hope of Your truth. Amen.

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Robin Zastrow wants to live in a world where coffee never gets cold and kindness abounds. When she's not discovering the wonders of construction paper and cardboard tubes with her two little ones, you can find her sneaking in another few pages of a book or jotting down bits of writing on scraps of paper.

One of her favorite Scriptures is:“Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.” Psalm 33:20-22 ESV

In 2 Corinthians 6:11-13, Paul speaks to the idea that our hearts can grow cold and calloused to the community of Christ: “We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return ( I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.”

In 2 Corinthians 7:2-3, we see the heart addressed again: “Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.”

We are called both to live and die together… We are called to love

Our relationships with one another are eternal! Get ahold of that! Not only will our relationship with Jesus be eternal but our relationship with His people is eternal as well. We are called both to live and die together. I think part of that dying process is forgiving those who have either intentionally or unintentionally hurt us. 

We are called to love. As 1 John 4:19- 21 says: “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

We find an exhortation in 2 Corinthians 6 and 7 to widen our hearts, make room in your hearts (2 Cor.7:2), and admonition from the apostles to the church that “you are in our hearts” (2 Cor. 7:3). 

As the body of Christ, we are called to function as a body and 2 Corinthians 1 is filled with the very intentions and purposes of what our lives together were ordained by God for……

EACH OTHER, not self!

• Comforting each other (v.4)

• Sharing abundantly in Christ's sufferings (v.5)

• Share in comfort (v.5)

• Share in affliction for the sake of comfort and salvation (v.5)

• To see a purpose to our affliction (v. 6)

• Hope for each other (v.7)

• Tell each other our burdens and afflictions (v.8)

• Encourage each other (v.8)

• Rely on God, not ourselves (v. 9)

• Remind each other  (v.10)

• Help each other by prayer (v.11)

• Visit each other (v.15)

• Work together for joy (v.24)

2 Corinthians 21-22 encapsulates God’s intentions for US! 

“And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”

Who are we to hold on to unforgiveness and distance ourselves from God’s gracious provision for our lives? The body of Christ is a supernatural community that is ordained by God for our good and His glory! We cannot treat the grace of God like a smorgasboard where we pick and choose what we like, disregarding the very things that will nourish us and build the body of believers up into the head which is Christ. 

Our experiences are to be shared with one another for one another.

So, let us submit to God’s Word. Let us respond in maturity today by praying that He would widen our hearts for His people because we are in this thing together for the long haul! 

Our experiences are to be shared with one another for one another. We must lay aside any weight that would hinder us from running the race with endurance. Unforgiveness is a heavy burden that will ensure a root of bitterness. Bitterness and unforgiveness will not be allowed in our future heavenly relationships, so why would we allow them in our earthly kingdom minded relationships if we are serious about our love for God? 

Above all else let’s LOVE! 1st Peter 4:8 attests to the importance of our relationships with one another this side of heaven: “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.”

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Karen Savage wants to live in a world where Christ is Glorified. When she's not serving her family, you can find her serving others. Her favorite Scripture is John 15:7-8 ESV. 

As we have added children, we have also added baby gates. We now have one baby gate per child in our home. If you lost count, that’s four. We don’t even notice their presence anymore, as we have become so used to them. Yet they keep our children safe, from falling down the stairs, from going into areas that are not “baby proof.” Not to mention, they keep my kids from the stash of birthday and Christmas presents I have hiding in those sections of the house! 

Recently, my nine-month-old snuck through a gate that was left open at the bottom of our stairs and crawled all the way to the top without us noticing. I know it was quick, but at that time he could have been seriously hurt if he fell. My husband found him and quickly returned him to the safety of the lower level and shut the gate behind him. The thought occurred to me that gates are only helpful if you actually use them. They do no one any good if they aren’t put into action.

Upon reading Matthew 22:41-46 and Mark 12:38-34, I came across a gate of our Christian faith. In both of these chapters, Jesus quotes the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 to the Pharisees who were questioning him:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

Faithful Jews would have known this passage well, as they quoted it twice each day. It was a landmark passage for their faith. What strikes me as so radical is that the people that knew this phrase intimately would not know, indeed, not even recognize, when the God they were supposed to love with everything in them was standing right in front of them! Much like my open baby gates, the Law that was meant to point them to Christ was leading them to danger.

As I observe modern Christianity, I see this passage as a landmark passage for our faith as well. We do not necessarily ritually repeat this verse as the Jews did, but we do summarize Jesus’ teaching on the greatest and second greatest commandment. We put it simply into four words: “Love God. Love others.” I’ve encountered this phrase in multiple church mission statements and painted on church walls, labeled on Christian mugs and t-shirts, and tattooed on the arms of brothers and sisters in Christ. Yet, I’m afraid that we are opening a gate to the life of a Pharisee. It may be so commonplace to us that it has become useless. Claiming to be mature with our catchphrase, we actually become more prone to folly. We are the babies. We climb the stairs only to fall.

Sisters, it is worth your time to pause and meditate upon Jesus’ words here. These words from Jesus should be familiar to you, but never useless, never ho-hum, never tired to your convictions or to your prayers. May the challenge to love God and love others never become so cliche that it is just our cultural background noise.

God is calling us to an all-encompassing love, and this love is a response to His all-encompassing love for us.

To truly love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind means to love him with your everything. When God says “all” in Scripture He means ALL, no part left out or forgotten. That means our total and complete love is to go to Him.

To love Him with your heart, kardia in Greek, means to love him with all your passions, desires, intelligence, will, character, and from the innermost secret places of who you are. To love Him with all your soul, psyche, means to love Him with all your breath and life, your very essence. To love Him with all your mind, dianoia, means to love Him with all your thoughts, understanding, imagination, and feelings.

Simply put, God is calling us to an all-encompassing love, and this love is a response to His all-encompassing love for us. We must realize it. We must receive it! He would not call us to this kind of love without first giving us bucketloads of it Himself. And He would not call us to this kind of love if we were not created to live it out! Yet, how in the world do we do that? We look to Christ! God gives us the most beautiful example of this love in Jesus Himself, who loved the Father and enacted this command from His own human words and deeds. And that love extended to others as well, as Jesus not only told but showed us how to ‘love thy neighbor.’

We must remember that the greatest commandment - to love - comes from a great God! He does not just challenge our lackluster love for Him but He also gave us Love Himself to redeem and restore our ability to love once again. One day, I will love the Lord my God with ALL my life and breath. Today, I see that I love Him more than the hour I first believed, but oh for grace may I love Him more! I’m praying God would help me repent of the “some” that should be “all” - that He’d help me receive His love in full and respond to it by how I love others. Help me not to fall through the gate, Lord. Teach me how to love you, great God!

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Jillian Vincent loves Jesus. She's a wife, mother of two boys and a Dayton enthusiast. Jillian currently is a stay at home mama and spends nap time writing and discipling other women. She would (almost) die for an avocado, a cup of coffee made by her husband, a novel that makes her cry, and a bouquet of sunflowers.

If I could only convey through black and white text the sheer excitement that fills my body when I read those beautiful red words of Jesus in the Bible. The words spoken directly TO ME from Jesus. Yes, they are spoken to you as well. To everyone.

My limited human abilities to rationalize relationships requires me to generationalize God and Jesus- I know that is not a real word, but can we pretend it is? I mentally place God in the Father, or Grandfather generation. Jesus is like a brother. Anyone that knows me knows I adore my siblings so adding Jesus as a brother makes my family, basically, the best ever.

When it comes to siblings, I have more than a handful. I have seven. Seven. I adore these people and the special significant others they have. They give me so much joy there aren’t even words to describe it.

I didn’t have an easy family life growing up; there was a lot going on that left more than a few battle scars on most of us. One thing we always had was each other. The way my family is split, I have 3 of my sisters on my biological mother’s side. I lived with them, grew up with them. We did the day to day life together. I was the oldest, so I helped them get ready for dances, trained them on makeup, discussed boys.  I probably also did a bit of smothering. My other 4 siblings fall on my biological father’s side. I never lived with them, only saw them when I drove myself over there. They are quite a bit younger than me and it took until they were all adults for the relationships to really solidify.

How does this have anything to do with our current reading, you ask? I’m getting there. A few weeks ago, my precious stepmom sent me a text about my birthday. She wanted me to pick a restaurant or someplace to celebrate. I told her I didn’t have a preference, so she coordinated with my 3 local siblings from my father’s side to have dinner at home one evening. The truth is, I was feeling isolated and alone, unlovable almost. When she asked, I didn’t want to be around anyone, let alone celebrate my existence. (I do not enjoy sharing this vulnerable side of me.)

While still wallowing in this place of self-hate, I went to dinner at my beloved stepmom’s house. Based on my mood, dinner should have been a few lima beans, a chunk of gizzards with a dirty shoe for dessert. Instead, when I arrived, she had prepared a delicious chicken with mixed vegetables and cheesy potatoes followed by cake and cupcakes. My mom didn’t make a meal I felt I was worthy of, she made a meal SHE felt I was worthy of.

”But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” Luke 15:20

In Luke 15 Jesus speaks to the crowd about the prodigal son. He explains how the youngest son is given his inheritance. The oldest son stays home, continues working for his father. The young son spends his money swiftly and quickly develops a low self-esteem. He soon feels as if he has no worth, as if he cannot return home to the family because he has done too much damage. He eventually decides going home to be an employee of his father’s would be better than starving to death. I’m sure many of you know the story, but just as a refresher, allow me to remind you: Upon seeing his son walking up the lane, the father immediately begins ordering a feast, a party for his returning son. Read that again… Upon seeing him walking up the lane! This is a crucial part of the story. The son didn’t have to apologize, beg forgiveness, work off the debt, start a charity, deliver pizza by camel. Nothing. He just had to return home.

God is quite the same with us. When we feel defeated, as if we could never show our makeup-streaked, puffy-eyed, snotty-nosed, ugly cry faces in public again, God runs down the lane to embrace us while the party is prepared. I know for me, that moment has happened more times than I care to admit. But I know how perfect it feels to just allow His glory to embrace me in my mess. Just like that night when I walked into my parent’s home and was embraced by my stepmom. She didn’t care that I had ugly cried that day. Neither did God. There was an abundance of love towards me because I existed. Even though that was the last thing I felt worthy to have showered upon me. The love God has for us was brought home again in John 11:35-36 when Jesus returns to the tomb of his friend Lazarus. He wept. The people who had followed him there said: “See how much He loved him!” No matter our place emotionally, Jesus loves us enough to weep when we die, metaphorically or physically. Can you imagine watching us make mistake after mistake as we navigate our lives? I’d want to reach down and shake us into submission!

While I completely understand why He doesn’t shake us into submission, I draw both a bit of perplexity as well as strength from Luke 10:19-20 when Jesus says, “Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.” This brings a sense of peace to a tumultuous heart. Knowing my name is written in heaven. Whoa. Nothing can calm a racing heart like that phrase, especially one in a state of self-pity. But that’s only half. We have authority over the enemy through God. Could there be a more stabilizing phrase in the world? God has granted us the ability to cast the demons away from our lives, to bring our lives back to Him, back to His grace. I can’t lie, it almost makes me feel like a superhero. Take that, enemy! I’ve got my super suit of God on and I’m sick of you so WHAP! Back to hell you go!

Chins up, ladies!! You are precious and loved! Snotty-nosed, ugly crying and broken. God still thinks you are beautiful, amazing, and unique. He is RUNNING down the lane to embrace you in your mess!

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 Sonya Gentry wants to live in a world where being kind and loving means that when we encounter a need or brokenness, we say yes first and think about it second. This would be a world where walking with Jesus means trying to act like Jesus through loving, relevant acts of service; where Christians put their hands and feet in the dirty situations of the world in order to show people God’s love and grace; where we understand that comfort zones are meant to be broken because people need us to show up and be be the best portrayal of God’s love we can be. When she's not working, you can find her being silly with friends and family, playing games with her nephews, volunteering for various organizations and events with her church, or relaxing with a movie.

Today's team journal was written by our Social Media Manager, Kelly Gwin.

You know, the song by Cory Asbury? (If not, check it out on YouTube here.)

It's possible that many of you have had this anthem blaring in your car speakers since it came out in January, and while its proven to be slightly controversial, it has been the declaration of my heart, and recent theme song of my life. The word “reckless” has negative connotations if we’re going to get technical, but this word seems to capture the ferocious intensity of the love of God that has recently been revealed to me in a whole new way. This is a unique love that only comes from a good and perfect Father. A Father who is willing to go farther than we could ever imagine to come after His own.

A few weeks ago, (via circumstances obviously ordained by God) I was blindsided by sin from my past that I had completely forgotten about. Yes, forgotten sin. A hidden mountain of events and deeds (mine and others’) came down unexpectedly and felt as if it were pressing me down into the depths of the sea; it was dark and heavy. I was confronted with memories of things that I had pushed down deep. Things I would promptly shake out of my mind whenever they tried to float to the surface. I knew they were there, but they had found their home in a secret hole in my heart, far away from the light of day, and in some subconscious way I had reckoned them untouched by the blood of Jesus. This lie resulted in a long struggle with worthlessness, fear, trust issues, and condemnation that was only piling up with every new failure and weakness in my life. I believed the Gospel. I loved Jesus. But this secret collection of sin I kept almost subconsciously from the Lord was keeping me in bondage. An accuser in the back of my mind kept saying, “He didn’t pay for THOSE things.”

“He sent from on high, he took me;
 he drew me out of many waters.
 He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
 for they were too mighty for me.
 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
 but the Lord was my support.
 He brought me out into a broad place;
 he rescued me, because he delighted in me.”
 - Psalm 18:16-19 ESV

Sometimes grace and mercy looks like pain and process. My heavenly Father carefully and intentionally prepared my heart for this season. He knew it would hurt. He knew I would need to bring these things to people I love dearly, so that we could come into greater unity and understanding of barriers and struggles that, beforehand were perplexing and unexplainable. But the lyrics of the song ring true to those who have been through a process like this, “There's no shadow you won’t light up, mountain you won’t climb up, You're coming after me.”

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- 1 John 1:19 ESV

God knew it would hurt. He knew it was worth it. He went down into the deepest depths of my past, and brought to the surface the ugly things that I didn't want to acknowledge, and showed me the truth - His truth. He lead me to the cross, and showed me that those secret sins were there -  not on my back, but on the back of my Savior. He willingly shed His blood for every single one. Attempting to hide from them was only robbing me of experiencing the fullness of His love for me. He bought me - all of me. He knew exactly what He was purchasing, and He doesn’t regret it. He is not ashamed to be called my God.

So, I held onto His hand, and let Him take me to places I didn’t want to go, which included confiding in my husband and in my community. I was received with grace and understanding, and found that holding back was only serving to keep me from experiencing the fullness of love in those contexts as well. This “holding back” was not done intentionally, but I do admit that I had convinced myself that things that happened before my life in Christ didn’t matter to Him, or to others. I clung to the truth that I’m a new creation and moved on. While accepting my new identity is vital to abundant life, I realize now that it’s only when we are willing to get low, in the muck and mire of our sin, that the Gospel is magnified in our lives the way that it should be. As the song lyrics say:

There's no shadow You won't light up
 Mountain You won't climb up
 Coming after me
 There's no wall You won't kick down
 Lie You won't tear down
 Coming after me

So I’ve learned to confront my sin and failures head on, past and present, no matter how deep or vile, and sing the song of my Father’s love for me. This is freedom. Fully known and fully loved. Dark shadows being lit up by the grace and mercy of a God who wants me to know the depths of His love. I carry the truth of the Gospel in my heart each day as I continue to grow, mature, fail, and fall. I am now living aware of the glorious fact that EVERY one of my sins is covered by the blood of Christ. Therefore, I am not heaping new condemnation onto myself when I fail. That is not possible for a child of God. I am reminded that when we sin, we are just seeing more and more things that He died for. “It is finished.” The mountain is gone. I mourn and grieve and repent, but then I rejoice and walk in “the overwhelming, never ending, reckless love of God.”

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
- Romans 8:1-4 ESV

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Kelly Gwin wants to live in a world where deep heart-talks happen at the top of every hour (you know, ones where everyone cries), gardens thrive without effort, and all the walls are white. When she's not discipling her 3 young girls and trying to keep her coffee hot, you can find her serving and living life with her Faith Christian Fellowship Dayton family, listening to some sort of podcast, or being "social" on behalf of DWITW.

Her favorite Scriptures are: Psalm 86:8 and Romans 5:8.

Our team journal today was written by the DWITW Administrator, Tech/Design Guru, and our beloved sister, Mindy Braun.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

— John 13:34-35

I've always called myself a dreamer. Someone who never stops thinking about what's next and the big ideas I have for my life. I like to be a part of change and want to be involved with anything and everything that is making a difference. I want to say yes to it all and have a fear of missing out or not making as much impact as I could. Let me tell you, it's exhausting. 

A little while ago we released a podcast episode with Kathe Bricker. I had the honor of being a co-host with Jillian in that interview. I will never forget Kathe talking about her "no give": The one thing she can't give up and will always say yes to. 

This week my husband and I are on a work retreat. We run a photography business out of our home, and for the first time we are setting time aside for 2 days to completely, 100% focus on it. No kids. No laundry that needs folded and dinners that need cooked and t-ball practices to get to. We are discussing everything from our personal aspirations to our pricing to who sends the emails. We just spent the last 3 hours talking about the biggest part of it all: our whys. Why do we do what we do? Why do we want to make changes? It didn't just stick with our business - it came home and got personal. Why do we live where we do? Why would we want to move? Why did we join a church plant? Why do we want to serve in this way? Our answer always came back to the same thing. 

To love people. 

That is and should be the beat of our hearts. The Word of God is full of commands and instructions on loving one another. We even just covered this on day six of our Beyond Titus 2 study. 

“We are all called to the work of making disciples: the only qualification is loving people and following Jesus.”

— DWITW, Beyond Titus 2

The Christian faith is that simple. Love God above all and love others like He does. Sounds so simple, but because of our human, sinful nature, it's not. This retreat is not simple. Sharing our homes is not simple. Speaking with soft, kind words to our disobedient kids is not simple. Loving people who are not you is never easy. But God has given us the Holy Spirit to walk us through it: He is our guide. He will equip us well and perfectly. We can also look to Jesus as a living example, ask for forgiveness when we stumble, and keep on walking this life in His light.

So this week, God is asking me to ask this question: Why am I doing the things I do? What dreams do I have and what are their purposes? I'm tired of being exhausted, feeling like I'm not doing anything well. I've said yes to too many things. So now I'm learning to let go of things, things that are honestly good. God is calling me to focus on Him and carrying out the simplest commandment: love Him, and then love people. I'm refocusing on loving my husband, my kids, my clients, the church and my city. 

Loving people. I cannot give that up. 

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Mindy is an Ohio-born-and-raised, small town girl who has grown to love the city of Dayton. Her family resides in East Dayton.  While she's not being mama to her two kids, she and her husband run a photography business out of their home. Mindy has a love for deep friendships, truffle fries, sleeping in, the outdoors, serving the Church, and ice cream after bedtime.

This week's team journal is written by Jillian Vincent, DWITW's blog and podcast coordinator.

Jillian's study buddy and Valentine, baby Matthias. 

On this Valentine's week, my studies have taken me to a jam-packed 1 John 3, the love chapter of the love book. John 3:1 says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” God is our Father, lavishing love upon us, his kiddos. Word. Enough said. Mic drop. I could end right there with all the power of that statement.

But this got me thinking… if temporary, earthly love (a love that is so unbelievably lacking) can make us do all sorts of crazy things, what about God’s love? What should be our response to the perfect love of the Father? 1 John 3 describes three outcomes that result from this epic love upon our lives.

1.       God’s love gives us confidence. When I think of the word confidence, I imagine HER. You know, the “it girl,” the one that doesn’t have to try to get her hair just right, who can eat whatever she wants without gaining a pound, who always knows just what to say. But then, I know; she doesn’t actually exist. And when I have these thoughts, am I not worshipping her instead of worshipping Jesus? A fake ideal instead of the FOR REAL deal? In context, John says experiencing God’s love gives us confidence before the Father. It gives us confidence, not because we become perfect, but because we are focused on the one that is perfect! We can rest in our identity as children of God, a role that has nothing to do with our performance. In 2:28, John writes, “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.” In 3:19-21, he continues, “By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.”

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“And now, little children, abide in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming”

— 1 John 2:28

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Are you hiding in shame, sister? What or who is causing that shame? It is not of God. He calls us into his presence and discards our shame. He is greater than that shame in our hearts! We gain this confidence by spending time with Christ, abiding in Him, resting in our identity as beloved daughters. And I would add that as we have confidence before him, we also have confidence before the world, because earthly approval is no longer the focus of our affection. Our Father is! So we begin to care less about our hair and hips, Instagram hits, cleanliness of our houses, success of our careers, creativity of our children’s birthday parties, etc. Philippians 4:8 reads, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ." Ladies, it all just becomes RUBBISH compared to knowing Christ!

2.       God’s love purifies us. God’s fatherly love gives us a drive to be pure as he is pure. When we experience the love of the Father, it compels us to want to please him. We have to be done with sin, because there is no sinning in the presence of our holy Father. We have been “born of God.” So as a Christian, my sin eats me alive now. When I have unconfessed sin in my life, it is a magnified weight on my heart and distances me from my Father. Even “white lies” grieve me deeply, because they cannot stand in my Father’s presence. I want to be close to him, and there is such intimacy in confession, and opening up my heart for God to make pure. It doesn’t always feel good, and sometimes it is downright embarrassing because it causes us to admit to others our imperfections instead of being the “IT GIRL” (see note about confidence above). And sometimes it means looking stupid to other people who won’t get why it is such a big deal or who are just plain offended by your conviction. Yet, those convictions and confessions always give me opportunity to point myself and others away from me and towards my Father. Does this mean I will never sin again? No! But it does mean I will be about practicing righteousness instead of practicing lawlessness, which is habitual sin. This side of heaven, I’m going to be confessing and confessing again, on my knees crying out to Abba to help me. But one glorious day, sister, the battle will be over. We will be like him because we will see him as he is, in all his pure glory (1 John 3:3).

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“We love because he first loved us”

— 1 John 4:19

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3.       God’s love compels us to love others. The love of the Father drives us to love others fiercely. We will drop everything we have to lay down our lives for each other. We won’t drag our feet out of guilt because it is “the right thing to do.” We will be compelled with love because THAT IS HOW GOD LOVES US! “We love because he first loved us,” reads 1 John 4:19. God’s love is the kind of love that sings LOUDLY over you (Zephaniah 3:17), serves you and lays down your life for you (Mark 20:28), the kind that quenches your thirst (John 4). So we are not passive vehicles of his love, my sisters, we are first in line, eager and earnest in our love from pure hearts (1 Peter 1:22).

What does that even mean? Today? A million beautiful things. There is no act of love too small because it all originates in the perfect love of the Father. In my life, God has been loving me so fiercely that I just can’t help but wash my friends dishes before mine, take the scary first step of adoption, and ask my husband how I can serve him instead of launching babies at him as soon as he comes through the door.  It is competing with my black neighbors over who can give each other the best Christmas presents. It is hitting my knees to beg God to give my friend struggling with infertility a baby. It is crawling out of bed at three in the morning to feed my own baby and doing it again an hour later. It is, in fact, delightful, surprising, challenging, and simple. It is imperfect, but practicing. Love, in deed and in truth. Once you know the truth, once you see Christ as he is, you want to love like he loves. You just can’t help yourself, flawed as you are. You will be smitten, asking your Father God to help you be just like him when you grow up.

Sisters, let’s not wait another second to ask God to give us confidence before Him, to purify our hearts, and to compel us to love others the way he loves us. I’m praying 1 John 3 over your lives today as I’m praying it for mine. Thank you, Father, for the crazy way you love us.

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Jillian has been a lover of Jesus for twenty years. She's a wife, mother of two boys and a Dayton enthusiast. Jillian currently is a stay at home mama and spends nap times writing and discipling other women. She would (almost) die for an avocado, a cup of coffee made by her husband, a novel that makes her cry, and a bouquet of sunflowers.