Prayer and Purpose

In theology, hermeneutics specifically refers to the interpretation of Scripture. William W. Klein defines hermeneutics as “ both a science and an art.” [1] It is a science because one must employ a methodology and other fields requiring particular methodologies are utilized as well. These fields include anthropology, archaeology, and history. However, Klein says because texts are written with human hands, they “cannot be reduced solely to quantifiable and precise rules.” [2] Instead, there are many nuances involved in interpretation of texts. Leo Percer reminds us that words have denotations as well as connotations. [3] Denotations, or the dictionary definition, can be approached scientifically. These denotations give definitive meaning to words. Connotations, however, rely on context. This reliance is not only on the context of use in a sentence, paragraph, book, etc., but also on the context of culture and intentionality.   As an example of the necessity of understanding ...

I am reading a book given to me by a wonderful friend of mine who is serving as a missionary in Africa. The book, The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian has a lot of good prayer points for a wife to pray over her husband. I am not done with the book, and I am not writing in an effort to promote it, rather, her prayer points got me thinking again about having a daily prayer focus for my husband, my kids, and other important things in my life. My favorite prayer points come from Monica Andrews at Daily Dwelling . She has created beautiful art to go along with the prayer points, and they would be great to print and put into a prayer journal if you are into that, but she only has twenty points. So, if you do one point a day, in the typical month you would repeat the first ten points on days 21-30 in the month, or maybe do two points a day on those days. Why not instead have thirty prayer points? Omartian has 31 listed prayer points in her book, but I would feel like that 31st po...

In Numbers we find instructions that Yahweh has given Moses to give to Aaron regarding a blessing upon His people: "Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, Yahweh bless you and keep you; Yahweh make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; Yahweh lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. 'So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.'" Numbers 6:22‭-‬27 ESV Re-read the last sentence. God wanted the priests to mark His people as His. I grew up hearing this every Sunday as our benediction, and it is fitting because, though I am not an Israelite, I am chosen by God, adopted into His family. Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians, "for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither sla...

I was reflecting on how I am often my own worst enemy. My anger, lack of patience and tenderness are often my undoing and, in my opinion, my greatest weakness in both motherhood and in being a beacon of light in this world to reflect God's love. This reflection led me to a cathartic means that I have long neglected using, poetry. I wish everyone a happy New Year and hope that no matter how close or far from God you are now, that you grow closer to Him throughout 2019. My heart aches I long to be better than I am To be who You desire me to be Yet I never cease to fail At all that I do The world echoes my fears Screams my own doubts back at me But You love me My identity is found in You Help me seek You daily Help me to seek you each moment To step back and see what matters Will this matter tomorrow? Many things will, others won't Let my eyes be set on eternity For this life is like vapor, a mist Here today, gone tomorrow May I serve You daily And may I do as Y...

I love camping, and I love my kids, but let me tell you, those two things don't always go well together. This summer for camping my kids were ages 3, 2, and 9 months. Those are hard ages for getting them to fall asleep when everyone is together. So, we try to go to bed in our one room tent and the youngest, Phoebe, needs it quiet, otherwise she wonders what is going on and wants to be involved. My older two are chasing each other and wrestling, being altogether too loud for anyone within about 50 feet to get any rest. We tried movies utilizing our "entertainment center," which is just a pouch for a tablet, and sometimes it was successful. Mostly, though, Jason and I spent around an hour or more every night trying not to go crazy as our children tried their best to resist the sleep they, and we, desperately needed after long and tiring days. If we got upset with them for being loud and tried to discipline them by talking to them or giving them a spanking, it only made it w...

One of my favorite passages in the Bible comes from Paul's letter to the Romans: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. " Romans 1:18-20 (emphasis mine) I love that this passage points us to nature, the constant witness of Yahweh. There would be no nature without Him, for He spoke it into existence, and the only way to deny this is to "suppress the truth". Instead, we ought look to nature and see the glory of God in His creation. I remember a youth group retreat where my Pastor asked us to go find evidence of God, I walked a couple steps away from the fire pit and grabbe...

I am desperately in love with Yahweh! I am a forgiven child of God. I am created to love, serve and commune with Yahweh. I am a beautiful, powerful creation. I am a godly wife, desperately in love with her husband. I am raising beautiful, intelligent, bi-lingual Christ-followers. For a few years now I have had this or something like this written out for myself to remind me of who I am and in whom I find my identity. It seemed to be a blessing to the ladies in my Bible study and I wanted to pass it on to others. To make something like this for yourself can remind you that your identity isn't as the world perceives it -- the world often associates a person's job with their identity. Rather, we are children of God, forgiven and given life through the death of Jesus, our job is just what we do.  In college, I remember sitting down with a friend one morning and she asked me to make a list of good things about myself. That moment, all I could come up wit...