abandoned to Christ.

Being a mom, and especially a Christian mom, is hard. It's what I call, hard heart-work. God builds a special bond between a mother and each of her children. There's something inexplicably wonderful about the life that proceeds from a mother's womb. Which is why abortion is such a horrible and wicked thing to encourage women to do—to strip herself of the beautiful life God graciously gave her in spite of what sins she may have committed, or what sins may have been committed against her.  Every child is an unmerited gift from God. Therefore, in view of God's mercy, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship. This command extends to motherhood also. Which means, rather than mothering our children in order to please and seek love for self, we care for our children in order to please and love God and our children sacrificially, and not just when it's easy, fun and dignified. It means we must love God a...

Tomorrow, we'll celebrate another Mother's Day. For some, it'll be a day in which we have the opportunity to honor our mothers who love the Lord and taught us to do the same. For others, it'll be a day when we miss our mothers who are no longer with us, but have entered eternity with Christ, or grievously, without Christ. And for others, this Mother's Day will be a day where we're tempted to send cards filled with untruthful, feel-good sentiments and share posts on social media that describe a godly mother we never had/have. Regardless of what kind of mother we had/have, we're called by God to love and honor her... biblically (read: Celebrating A Different Kind of Mother  to find out how to practically obey this biblical mandate). Some, like me and my husband, were raised by mothers who worked hard to put a roof over our heads and food on the table. But sadly, neither are/were believers (my mother-in-law entered eternity without Christ🥺) However,...

For the past month our oldest son has been asking me what I want for Mother's Day. I've had no other ideas to offer him except one: that he aspire nothing greater than to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ; walk closely with Him and that love for the Almighty be preeminent in his life. I'm 45 now and I pretty much have everything I need or want. When you get to be my age, there's very little you desire that money can buy. The things that are most cherished are the things of the heart. And since Christ is my Lord and Savior, His Holy Spirit inhabits my heart and directs my desires to be more like Christ and less like I was pre-second birth (Rom 8:28-29, Gal 2:20). The desires of our flesh begin to wane as we draw nearer to the Lord Jesus. We begin to see things with the new spiritual eyes He gave us. And the things we treasure are no longer the things that satisfy our flesh. We begin only to long for the greater things—the things that ...

The first week of April 2014, my darling husband Jim shared something on Facebook that really peaked my interest. He posted the Bible study, Scripture memory and reading methods of A.W. Pink. After reading it, I was a bit hesitant, but printed it out and desired to do the same. "In my early years I assiduously followed this threefold course: "First, I read through the entire Bible three times a year (eight chapters in the Old Testament, and two in the New Testament daily.) I steadily persevered in this for ten years, in order to familiarize myself with its contents, which can only be done by consecutive reading. "Second, I studied a portion of the Bible each week, concentrating for ten minutes (or more) each day on the same passage, pondering the order of it, the connection between each statement, seeking a definition of the important terms in it, looking up all the marginal references, being on the look-out for its typical significance.  "Third, I meditated ...

"Sunny, why is it wrong for women to assert authority over men and is a woman sinning if she speaks at a women's conference and men show up?" Desiring to be a good steward of the short time my Lord has appointed me on this earth, it seemed wiser to respond to the vast amount of emails and comments I've received by writing one article rather than trying to answer my readers individually on this particular topic. My prayer is that everyone who's already written as well as those who haven't but are wondering, might together, be encouraged by this article and the resources I'm happy to share. Before I answer the above question, I want to clearly state that I am a complimentarian  (theological view that men and women are equal in value before the sight of God and man, with differing roles within the home and church) and not an egalitarian  (theological view that men and women have equal roles, i.e., ordain female pastors, elders, etc.). ...

God has been better to me than I deserve. Especially since all I deserve (that is, my sins have earned me) is Hell and His full wrath (Rom 3:23, 5:9). But because God is love and He is perfect, pure, holy, righteous and compassionate, full of mercy and grace (Ps 103:8-14), He chose to save me 41 years ago. Then the Lord saw fit to bless me with a husband 22 years ago, who loves Christ more than me (Col 1:18). Can a girl ask for more? I'm so very grateful to be my husband's forever second love . I pray the Lord will make me the kind of help-meet that will highlight his strengths, be a balm for his pains and a loving and understanding covering for his weaknesses (Prov 10:12, 31:11-12; 1 Pet 4:8). Marriage is the most important earthly relationship in the sight of God the Father; for He uses it as an earthly paradigm of His Son's relationship with His Bride, the Church (Eph 5:25-27).Therefore marriage ought never be considered, entered into or maintained with eph...

...she keeps her heart "clean" for Christ so that what flows out of her mouth is most pleasing to the Lord (Matt 15:18-20; Ps 19:14, Eph 4:29-32). "She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue...God shows no partiality..If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors...So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."  ~Proverbs 31:26; Romans 2:11; James 2:8-9, 4:17 We women "open our mouths" not just with our physical mouths, but also with our pens and keyboards. And too often, we "show partiality" as we ought not. We pay attention only to those we think "love" us just because they serve us and make us feel good. We don't tend to care very much if what others say are from God...

My Second Love  was written out of my love for God and for all my sisters in Christ whom the Lord has inspired to travel the road of biblical submission, so together we may raise our voices as one (Ex 24:3, Rom 15:6); giving praise, glory and honor only to Jesus our Supreme and First Love; enabling us to biblically honor our husbands as our Second Love. You can access these lessons by viewing the "Table of Contents" from the navigation menu on the left sidebar of the study's website at: www.mysecondlove.net . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Biblical submission is: A beautiful gift for your husband and a precious offering to God. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splen...

As Mother's Day fast approaches, my heart is heavy for the many who cannot celebrate with the joy and festivities that are often marked by this day: a special corsage for mom, adorned with mini-flowers representing every precious babe she has born. A special dress or hat, perhaps gloves or a sash. Breakfast in bed; a splendid day at church together; then off to a deliciously prepared lunch with all her favorites. Dinner out, if she desires, at her favorite restaurant, and of course, a scrumptious dessert follows. The entire day is spent with the sweet affection of her loved ones all around her, celebrating her tender, faithful, loving, sacrificial and gentle godly character. Her children and husband rise up and call her blessed (Prov 31:28-29) for her deeds and words prove she's a woman who, above all things, loves and fears the LORD God Almighty (Prov 31:30). Ahhh...isn't this just the picture perfect day? It's brimming with love and overflowing ...