Wait for God’s Goodness by Karen Bates
Karen Bates
October 16, 2019
God has gently reminded me more than once that the onus for what he has promised is not on me. It is on him.
God has gently reminded me more than once that the onus for what he has promised is not on me. It is on him.
I was recently visiting my son who is away studying at University, and we attended Sunday worship at a church near his school. After the service, quite a few people stopped us to thank us for showing up to church. The congregation was made up of mostly older members who seemed thankful, relieved, and overjoyed that people from a younger
“Ruth’s life is not living up to her expectations. She is a childless widow, living in a foreign land, dependent on the favor of strangers. Enter the Redeemer – the one who can rewrite the ending of a story gone wrong, buying back tragedy and making way for restoration.”
It is October, which for pastors is Clergy Appreciation Month. Recently I polled clergy on their experiences of Pastor Appreciation in the midst of ministry. The results managed to surprise me. I was curious to know answers to what I thought was a fairly straightforward, simple question: what’s one of the most meaningful gifts or gestures you received for Pastor
As a Mexican, I did not know I was a Hispanic, too. The term “Hispanic” refers to people from Spanish-speaking countries and, in the United States, it is a technical demographic label or distinction used to identify people from a Spanish-speaking origin. Since in Mexico the primary language is Spanish, the term “Hispanic” is not commonly used to identify Spanish-speaking
I love browsing bookstores. Whenever I learn about a new book, I’m frequently excited simply because it’s NEW, and I forget that it actually isn’t new at all. Instead, every new book is the culmination of a journey, with time spent thinking, researching, writing, and rewriting. That exactly describes the journey of WME’s “new” resource, Embrace: Showing and Sharing the
WME is excited to build on our successful launch of The Residency in Mission (RIM). Annie Kate Leinius will serve as the 2020 Resident in Mission in New Zealand. She joins Eliza Edge (2019-2020 RIM), who began her service in New Zealand in August. Annie Kate is working now to build financial and prayer support for her residency. In addition,
When change “just happens,” it never happens to move the organization’s goals forward.
“Today, patience is one of the greatest gifts we can give others.”
Isn’t it true that life will not always turn out the way you want? Maybe you don’t get the promotion you think you deserve or you are struggling with your health. Maybe your marriage doesn’t turn out the way you imagined even though you feel you have worked hard for it and done everything you possibly can. The truth is that we
One of the most common phrases in our culture, and in the church as well, is “you can’t judge me. Only God can judge me.” And yes, there are many verses in Scripture that tell us that we should not judge each other, and that God is the only judge of our behavior or intentions. (By the way, none of
The Methodist Wesleyan family is alive and well in East Africa! God is calling young women and men to minister through word, deed and sign – evangelists, church planters, teachers, pastors, doctors, lawyers, government officials – all Holy Spirit-inspired and ready to go where God leads them.
How many lay people do you know who exhibit vision for the inbreaking Kingdom of God?
A couple of generations ago in North America, camp meetings and revivals were not uncommon in many Wesleyan Methodist traditions, flourishing in part from their popularity in the 19th century across frontiers. Outdoor meetings or camp meetings or week-long revival series held in local churches perhaps helped to pave the way for Billy Graham’s famous evangelistic crusades that inhabited tents
Compassion, in the Jesus way, is active – it steers toward the pain, joins folks in the valley of the shadow of death and finds some way to point to the hope of the resurrection.
When you look closely at the first few verses of Philippians, something quite unique stands out fairly quickly:
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.
You’ll notice that Paul does not refer to himself as an apostle.
We have a hungry prophet (Elijah) on assignment to stretch the faith of a widow woman on welfare and to add insult to injury she has just lost her son.
I stop by to tell somebody when you are dealing with a dead situation you have to expect the unexpected, process your pain, and trust the process.
What would you give your life for? Your kids? Your spouse? Your family? Would you give your life for people you don’t know? People forced into prostitution in Bangalore, or unborn babies? Would you give your life for the Church? Paul tells us Jesus gave his life for just this thing. Jesus gave his life for the Church. More precisely, Jesus
Here’s a news flash – the word “evangelism” is emotionally, historically, and theologically charged.
Cognitive dissonance is especially challenging in evangelism. We’re tempted to find ways to reduce the divergences between the Gospel and our culture, to change our message so it’s more palatable to the society in which we live, to accommodate it to the “wisdom of the world.”
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