Though scars remain, there’s healing in Christ–Bonnie’s Story
In a split second your life can be forever changed. It was senior picture day and Bonnie’s twin sons headed off to high school in their rural community when the…
Topic > When Life Hurts > Grief >
Life After Loss: Grieving with Hope
“Grief is a journey that sooner or later we all must take,” writes counselor Tim Jackson. Sharing his personal experience and pointing us to the cross and the power of…
He Loves Me: A Woman's Journey to Peace
cover how you can find peace, even in the most tragic times of life. In He Loves Me, Bible teacher Cindy Bultema shares her personal testimony of God’s power that…
“God, I cannot do this journey”
Carol’s son Jason had big dreams: a U.S. Naval Academy graduation, a fairy-tale wedding, and a new life with his wife and her two young daughters. But one fateful decision would end it all. Learn how even a life behind bars could not stop God’s redemptive plan for both Carol Kent and her son. […]
Receiving Yourself in the Fires of Sorrow
As a saint of God, my attitude toward sorrow and difficulty should not be to ask that they be prevented, but to ask that God protect me so that I may remain what He created me to be, in spite of all my fires of sorrow. Our Lord received Himself, accepting His position and realizing His purpose, in the midst of the fire of sorrow. He was saved not from the hour, but out of the hour.
Job & Jesus and puzzling questions
Today on Discover the Word, the team concludes the series titled, “Job and Jesus”! And as they come to the end of Job’s story, they come across a puzzling question you may not have thought about before. It’s about his children. Join the team today for a thought-provoking discussion about “Job and Jesus,” today on […]
Bring your pain to Jesus
Grief and pain are a part of life. But we may forget that Jesus experienced these emotions as well. Today on Discover the Word, we ask the question, “When Jesus comes to us in our grief, do we recognize Him?” Listen today to Discover the Word!
God is enough
Is God really enough? In the face of losing a child, the grief can feel overwhelming. But as Mindy and Arlen found, God is more than enough. Discover God’s comfort and security for whatever you’re facing, even when you grieve. Since the time Arlen’s story was recorded, Hannah’s cancer has returned. She has just […]
Two Portraits
Clutching two framed photographs, the proud grandmother showed them to friends in the church foyer. The first picture was of her daughter back in her homeland of Burundi. The second was of her grandson, born recently to that daughter. But the daughter wasn’t holding her newborn. She had died giving birth to him.
A friend approached and looked at the pictures. Reflexively, she reached up and held that dear grandmother’s face in her hands. All she could say through her own tears was, “I know. I know.”
And she did know. Two months earlier she had buried a son.
There’s something special about…
The Land of “What Is”
Even all these years after losing our seventeen-year-old daughter Melissa in a car accident in 2002, I sometimes find myself entering the world of “What If.” It’s easy, in grief, to reimagine the events of that tragic June evening and think of factors that—if rearranged—would have had Mell arriving safely home.
In reality, though, the land of “What If” is not a good place to be for any of us. It is a place of regret, second-guessing, and hopelessness. While the grief is real and the sadness endures, life is better and God is honored if we dwell in the world…
Taking the Initiative Against Drudgery
When it comes to taking the initiative against drudgery, we have to take the first step as though there were no God. There is no point in waiting for God to help us— He will not. But once we arise, immediately we find He is there. Whenever God gives us His inspiration, suddenly taking the initiative becomes a moral issue— a matter of obedience. Then we must act to be obedient and not continue to lie down doing nothing. If we will arise and shine, drudgery will be divinely transformed.
Taking the Initiative Against Despair
In the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples went to sleep when they should have stayed awake, and once they realized what they had done it produced despair. The sense of having done something irreversible tends to make us despair. We say, “Well, it’s all over and ruined now; what’s the point in trying anymore.” If we think this kind of despair is an exception, we are mistaken. It is a very ordinary human experience. Whenever we realize we have not taken advantage of a magnificent opportunity, we are apt to sink into despair. But Jesus comes and lovingly says to us, in essence, “Sleep on now.
How do we trust God in times of deep loss?
Losing someone is always hard. It can leave you feeling a bit paralyzed and like you don’t have a clue what to do. As the group discovers, the prophet Elisha knew this better than anyone. Today when the Discover the Word group gets together, they will lead the conversation on how we can trust God […]
God’s got a plan for good
No one likes being the bearer of bad news. And as the Discover the Word group discovers in their study of “The Miraculous Life of Elisha,” Elisha probably didn’t either. But as we’ll see today, God’s got a plan for good, even when it just seems like more bad news. Join us today on Discover […]
Broken and useful
How can something broken be useful? Well, today on Discover the Word, the team will conclude a series of conversations with Ann Voskamp and discuss how brokenness, authenticity, and intimacy actually go hand in hand. Finish our series of conversations with Ann Voskamp on… “The Broken Way,” today on Discover the Word!
A Little Farther
One of my favorite Old Testament professors once shared this startling statistic: 40 percent of the psalms in the Bible are songs of lament in which the authors present their heartache and pain to God. But in the catalog of modern worship music, only 5 percent of songs could be considered lament, even by the most generous standards. My prof believes that part of the reason we don’t know how to lament is because modern worship tends to focus more on celebration and less on lamentation.
“The Broken Way”
When we say something’s “broken,” we mean that it’s no longer of use. But that’s not what God says when He sees our “broken” lives. Today on Discover the Word, the group, along with special guest Ann Voskamp, continues a discussion based on Ann’s new book, “The Broken Way.” Don’t miss today’s conversation on Discover […]
Discover how brokenness can lead to abundant life
Today on Discover the Word, the team welcomes bestselling author Ann Voskamp to the table. They’ll be kicking off a new series of conversations based on Ann’s new book, called “The Broken Way.” It’s a discussion that reveals how it’s brokenness that can actually lead to the abundant life. Join the fascinating conversations the group has […]
