Freedom
by Sisterlisa(Previously posted at GGMagazine)My daughter Jess pointed out this passage of scriptures a while back and at the time, while I understood these verses, it wasn’t until later that it really struck me. This is a beautiful explanation of how the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar is a picture of Christ and His Church. It’s the message of grace which was given to us through Abraham so many years ago.In this passage we see God unfolding this drama into a captivating lesson of God’s grace.Old Covenant = Bondwoman = Hagar = Mt. Sinai = Torah/Law = Bondage = Works of the Flesh

Thank You Lord
When my family sits down to watch wildlife shows on television, my daughter has the same reaction every time an animal is killed or eaten by another. She turns her face towards my chest and closes her eyes. She wraps her arms around me and wants me to hold her and not let go. I know that someday she will need to outgrow this, but for now I enjoy it. I enjoy that she still has a reason to snuggle with me. That's a closeness I think all of us mothers enjoy. Children know, that when their mother has been their source of nutrition from the time of birth, even through teaching them to eat solid foods, how to cook, and then to shop for their own food, they have developed a relationship of tr

Pharisees of Today
by SisterlisaYou know those days when you just get so frustrated with people because of their sin or their doctrine that you just want to tell 'em like it is? Why do we do that to them, or to ourselves? We become impatient with their growth. We all do this from time to time. I have seen how easy it is to slip out of Christ and into the black robed seat with the gavel and become the judge and that happens the most when we are suffering at the hands of a persecutor. We say things like, "What kind of a Christian are they?", "Are they really a Christian?", or "We should tell them how wrong they really are!". People suffer from many types of persecution and sad

Suffering Persecution
When I began sharing about how God was speaking to me in the midst of persecution, I feared I'd lose readers, yet what I found was that people have been searching online for such articles for help. We know that we have brethren in China and other countries that suffer persecution, persecution that we do not suffer in the United States. However, since we live in a country that has rights for the people, some forms of persecution have not occurred often. Something I noticed when my children were in a private school is that there is a stark difference in the form of persecution. It was very different from what we see in pu

Call Me Beautiful
We all possess the inherent longing for God's unconditional love. I'm convinced. It's how we we're wired, how we were created. Why we were created.This is something that has been on my mind and in my heart lately. And there's one word that seems to be following me around. One word I can't seem to shake. Beautiful.Lately I seem to be obsessed with beauty. Call it one symptom of a mid-life crisis, call it sudden vanity, call it si