Resources
In our free Resources section, you'll find helpful articles, audio files and video files. Use the menu bar above to move to each category, or browse through everything in the "All" section.
To play media files, just click on the 
arrow.
All Resources
July is the time to weed the garden
Our series called "Gardening the Soul," is aimed at helping anyone who lives in desperate circumstances. The July "gardening" article is now available; we hope it brings comfort and renewal.
Matt 15:13 “ Jesus replied, “ Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted, so ignore them.”
July is a good time to weed the garden. The garden in your heart needs to be weeded just like the garden in your backyard. Weeds grow everywhere and, whenever I see a weed (a plant in the “wrong” place), I want to pull it up! Weeding can be a never ending task. You can choose to spend all your time and energy working against the weeds or, you can choose to turn from the weeds, ignoring many of them (listen to Jesus’ Word above and really try to follow His wise words in your life). This month , (after a month of fertilizing the good plants of Love- those that grow in His Light), we’ll spend time, our thoughts and activities, in the weed patches – learning to carefully recognize spiritual weeds , showing them to God , listening to His Voice which teaches about the weeds and then letting the weeds go as directed - ignoring them with faith they will be uprooted by God.
The Word of God Is Not Bound
"The pastors aren't going to be very willing to hear a message from a woman" quipped a seminary faculty member. I was already nervous about the speaking invitation, and my Ukranian friend's comment was not helpful. How does one address a hard core group of Russian evangelical pastors?
June is the time to fertilize the garden.
Our series called "Gardening the Soul," is aimed at helping anyone who lives in desperate circumstances. The June "gardening" article is now available; we hope it brings comfort and renewal.
Luke 13:6 “Then Jesus told this story: A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. Finally, he said to his gardener, “I’ve waited 3 years and there hasn’t been a single fig! Cut it down. It’s just taking up space in the garden. The gardener answered, “Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.”
Fertilizing is the act of giving nutrients, good food, to the plants you want to strengthen. All living things, like plants ( and yourself) , grow better with good food. The plants of love God grows in your heart are no different. In June, we will be fertilizing or feeding the garden in your heart.
Judge had sent slain boy to live with mother
In a custody battle, a judge in Virginia ordered that a four year old boy spend the summer with his mother in Utah. The Associated Press reports that on Tuesday the child’s mutiliated body was found in a northern Utah Canyon. The boy’s mother and stepfather, Stephanie and Nathniel W. Sloop, are being held on suspicion of aggravated murder, descration of a corpse, felony, child abuse and obstruction of justice.
Among the many terrifying aspects of domestic abuse is that of custody arrangements that place children at risk.
May is a time of waiting...
Call For Papers
Justice for All: Overcoming Barriers to Peace and Safety in the Christian Home
May 13-15, 2011, Columbia Bible College
(Abbotsford [Vancouver], British Columbia, Canada)
PASCH (Peace and Safety in the Christian Home), an evangelical Christian organization, invites session and paper proposals for our 5th conference that will be held in Abbotsford, British Columbia. The conference will be a venue for the discussion of strategies, research projects, best practices, legal processes, and therapeutic initiatives related to creating peace and safety in the Christian home, Christian responses to wife abuse, and other forms of domestic violence.
Pakistan contemplates legal ban on domestic abuse
Pakistan’s Parliament is considering a law that would outlaw domestic abuse, though it is currently locked in committee. The Associated Press reports “surveys have shown that up to 80 percent of wives in rural parts of Pakestan fear physical violnce from their husbands, while 50 percent of women in urban areas admit their husbands beat them, according to a 2009 Sate Department report on Pakistan.”[1] Though probably under-reported, in 2008 there were 7,571 reports of domestic abuse including rapes, beatings and other violence.” A cruel and common form of abuse is that of throwing acid on a woman’s face, thereby destroying not only her face but also her future.
April is the time to sow
Why garden your Heart?
What do you want?
We all want love. One way of bringing more love into your life is to let God, the source of Perfect Love, into your heart and to let Him garden. He creates a Garden of Love. (Love is complex- difficult to describe, so His garden is made up of many diverse plants and places.
God knows we all need love. It’s like the spiritual blood of Life. God also understands the Way this world works –physically and spiritually. So, is His Goodness, He commands us to love. He knows in order to get what we want and need (love) we must first sow it. “You reap what you sow” is one of His ways. You can see it in the natural world- if we want a zinnia we must sow a zinnia seed. How amazing! To get something , we must first give it! This is definitely not man’s way. We just want to be given what we want with no effort. God’s Way says we must sow it.
January: An annual process of Gardening my Heart with God
January- a time to evaluate.
The gardening year begins in the winter with a period of evaluating what already exists in your garden. So, gardening your heart also begins with an evaluation - not a physical one but a spiritual evaluation. What is the condition of your heart? What is my heart’s Way of Being?- something which is invisible and not always logical. (Your intentions,desires, joys and sorrows. What delights you? What saddens you? Etc.) . This annual process of gardening my heart follows the same steps as I do in my earthly garden, and it seems to help me to try to align my heart with God’s will. I knew how to make a barren piece of land into a more beautiful space with God’s plants and so, I tried to make a barren heart more and more beautiful with God as the gardener. I discovered that Goodness could flourish more and more as love grows with God’s spiritual power.
RSS
