Tried With Fire

I've been waiting for Rosaria Butterfield's new book, The Gospel Comes with a House Key, ever since she and her husband, Kent, spoke at our theology conference two years ago. The books arrived yesterday, so I started flipping through a copy. My first reaction is - "Fasten your seat belt." I don't know where the idea came in that hospitality = entertaining and entertaining = Martha Stewart. Maybe it's my own introvert insecurity making a wrong connection, but Rosaria's book couldn't be farther from this. Radical ordinary hospitality gives evidence of faith in Jesus's power to save. It doesn't get dug in over politics or culture or where someone stands on current events. It knows what conversion means, what identity in Christ does, and what repentance creates. It knows that sin is deceptive. To be deceived means to be taken captive by an evil force to do its bidding. It knows that people need to be rescued from their sin, not to be giv...

It's my turn again at Out of Ordinary : The women in my church have been getting together roughly once a month for Sunday night socials. Different ladies open up their homes for a meal followed by a time of fellowship. These have been fun times to be together and a great way to get to know one another outside of Sunday morning. My turn as hostess will be in October, and I'm already starting to formulate plans in my head. While I am a planner by nature, there is another reason for thinking ahead so early. Hospitality intimidates me. I have the usual reasons. I'm an introvert. My house is small. I don't have a dining room table. I'm too busy with work. I'm more of a throw stuff in a crock pot with a can of cream of mushroom soup than a gourmet chef. And so forth and so on. In addition to these lame excuses, there's also a lingering fear in the back of my mind of "not doing it right", whatever that nebulous standard may be. So it's no wo...

Openness Unhindered , Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, Crown & Covenant Publications, July 2015, 206 pages. The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Butterfield is one of the most thought-provoking and challenging books I have read. I was convicted of my lack of love for the lost and lack of faith in the power of the gospel, but it also encouraged me to believe that God is able to save to the uttermost. If you haven't read it, read it! Because of Secret Thoughts , I was eager to read Butterfield's second book, Openness Unhindered . Identity and specifically sexual identity are hot topics and even more so following the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage. How should Christians address the issue of sexual orientation and identity? How do we come alongside our brothers and sisters who struggle with sexual sin and have made the choice to live "in chastity with unwanted homosexual desires?" (pg. 144) These are a few of the issues tackled ...

It's my turn at Out of the Ordinary in which I write about a subject that intimidates me - hospitality. I was recently convicted about my hospitality or lack thereof. I find it intimidating because I associate it with having a large home, a big dining room table, a love for decorating and cooking, and being an extrovert. Based on this ideal, which is largely a product of Martha Stewart phobia and Pinterest insecurity, I've failed because I don't fit any of those categories very well...  And this is where my problem lies. I've been focused on the outward and lost sight of what drives hospitality - the heart. Read more here .